Reflections upon a Path to Union

Purity of Intention within the Practice of Yoga

• Penny Frampton

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Imagine embarking on a transformative journey that elevates your practice to new heights, where the soul's pure consciousness illuminates every pose and breath, free from the shadows of personal motives. In our latest episode, we wade through the complexities of refining one's personality to become a vessel for this profound spiritual clarity. We discuss the significance of maintaining a clear, undisturbed tank of water—your mind and spirit—as we navigate the waves of emotions and thoughts. For those who guide others along this path, I stress the critical nature of preserving the purity of our intentions to ensure that our teachings pulsate with authenticity, untainted by our own biases.


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Speaker 1:

Welcome. My name is Penny Frampton and I am the host of the podcast A Little Light on the Path. A Little Light on the Path is a series of talks about esoteric philosophy, but from a practical and experiential perspective. I'll be presenting intellectual concepts but from the point of view of how they impact our lives and our spiritual journey, how those ideas work out through our ordinary lives, in other words, how to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way. Part of the podcast A Little Light on the Path is the diary of a modern Western yogi broadcast. A little light on the path is the diary of a modern Western yogi, which is where I share experience and events within my ordinary life, but lived as a yogi.

Speaker 1:

So this morning I have an insight to a question I've been contemplating for quite a while now. Answers usually come to me first thing in the morning or during my morning meditation, and this is because the question is being answered by my soul consciousness which, when I sleep, is more aware and active, and the answer will filter down into my mental consciousness first thing in the morning when I wake up. And since I meditate as soon as I get up, that answer will gain more clarity as I meditate. So what was I contemplating? What was the question in my mind the last few days that I needed clarity upon? Well, this morning it was all about purity of intention. As a yogi, in a modern western world, part of the purpose of our lives is to build that light of intention, to hold it, to hold the light of illumination and a purity of love through all things that we do and say, and to be able to maintain that purity through a purity of the personality as well. And what I mean by that is that you have to literally purify your personality at all levels so that, in fact, there are no emotions to filter the purity of the energy that you're holding, there are no thoughts and there are no personality, intentions or motivations to obscure the purity of that energy that you're holding. Secure the purity of that energy that you're holding. Part of being a yogi is to have reached a stage where you can hold an energy at a level of consciousness that is beyond the personality. So it's beyond the needs, desires, motivations or intentions of any aspect of the personality, and for the yogi, the purity of intention comes from the soul, consciousness, and beyond this level. Intention is beyond words because it's beyond the human mind to comprehend, but I will try to describe it. All things are energy.

Speaker 1:

Soul consciousness is also a form of energy, but it is the quality of the energy that is different from the qualities of the energies that make up the personality. The best way I can describe it would be to liken it to a tank of water. The tank itself is our physical form and the glass may be clear or it may be coloured, and this is the form that holds the water or the energies to a certain place and form. You have the emotions, which are like dropping drops of different dyes into the water and then swirling them around. Our thoughts are like when you add an air filter and you get bubbles of air through the tank. So the personality is like this tank of water with swirling colours and bubbles filtering through them. It's not clear at all, and the stronger the emotions, the more dense the colours, the more thoughts, the more movement within the water.

Speaker 1:

So then imagine that soul consciousness is a light source external to the tank, whose rays are have no colour in that water and no bubbles disturbing it at all. Pure, clear water and pure stillness. Then the light of soul consciousness can penetrate the water and reflect itself within the very essence of that water. So the purity of the water indicates the purity of the personality. Like Laplanders and Eskimos have several ways of describing ice, which depends upon the qualities of that frozen water, you have color, consistency, solidity and even the sound it makes. So the quality of stillness and clarity of the energies of the personality dictate how much of the qualities of soul consciousness you can hold, manage and direct.

Speaker 1:

As the path of the yogi develops, you become aware of sources of other energies beyond soul consciousness that have other qualities to them. Then you have to reach a point of stillness within soul consciousness to allow those to penetrate and become unified with your essence. It's like that light source beyond the tank of water we mentioned was the light from an artificial lamp, but beyond that was the light from the sun coming through the window beyond sun coming through the window beyond. You have to become still to the effects of the light from the lamp to become aware of the light from the sun. So, coming back to what I've been contemplating the past few days and it's one of the most difficult things to do when you're a teacher and I've been a spiritual teacher and mentor for many years and the clarity of this answer has grown and grown until finally, this morning, I have a real experiential clarity to it.

Speaker 1:

So, as I say, one of the most difficult things to hold in mind is watching people and students go through their own unique development, following their own paths and having the illumination to see where they are on that path as you watch them grow and develop. It's a bit like seeing each person as a different tank of water and you can see the colours and the bubbles and the quality of the water and the energy and the sides of the tank, whether they're clear or coloured. And the difficulty comes within the purity of your approach, in fact the purity of the intention of your approach as a mentor or a teacher. This purity means to have no intuition to affect the path which that person is upon, no motivation to affect what they are experiencing, and you cannot let any part of your own personality colour your intentions for mentoring or teaching someone. You have to be aware of your own motivations behind teaching and mentoring until you get to a stage on your own path where the illumination from soul consciousness through your personality is so pure that it starts to illuminate all your own personality motivations so that you can become aware of them, so that you can remove them. Then the purity of your intention becomes clearer and clearer, until the only illumination left is that of the soul consciousness.

Speaker 1:

I have been contemplating this because I'm becoming aware of the purity of my intentions behind giving talks on the Wisdom app and holding a space for guests and for discussion, and then, further to the producing of these podcasts, doing so for any intention of the personality, but to hold a purity of illumination and love that others may see and feel and respond to in whatever way is unique to them, from whatever path they are upon. And that is it. So when I'm giving talks and holding space, I am putting all that is my personality aside, connecting to soul consciousness and allowing that quality of energy to energize my words and whatever I am doing. I have become aware that recently my personality motivations have been affecting my choice of actions and words and I had to step away from my talks and allow time to reconnect to the purity of my soul intentions as a personality. When I watch people on their chosen path, it can be very strongly emotional because, experiencing what I do on the level of soul consciousness and beyond, I just want it for everyone. That lack of fear, the lack of anxiety, the purity of energy, such an incredible level of awareness. I just wish it for everyone. I know that everyone will come to it upon their own path and in their own time, and that is how it is meant to be. So all I can do as a yogi in this moment is to watch the purity of my own intention and hold it to the highest level of conscious awareness that I can in every moment. But I can also hold the intention that every person I speak to or that hears me will come to the purest level of understanding and of consciousness that they can in that moment on their chosen path.

Speaker 1:

One of the beings that I revere as an example for me is known by many names, but in the Far East she is called Kuan Yin. In India she is called Green Tara. In India she's called Green Tara, and her intention and purpose is to never pass beyond the life of this planet on her own evolution until every single soul has reached a state of consciousness whereby they are beyond fear and the personality. She's also known as the goddess of compassion. Her intention is holding love, illumination and compassion for every soul linked to life on this planet until they reach a level of liberation, and then she too can pass beyond the confines of this planetary system herself, system herself. And as I begin to describe my understanding this morning, I begin for the first time to get the very first and faintest understanding of what she is about.

Speaker 1:

And I have to hold that purity of intention myself through everything I do as a teacher and a mentor, as a podcaster as well, when I'm giving talks or producing podcasts. This is the level of intention that I must hold myself to. It was this level of purity of intention that came to me this morning in meditation, and it wasn't until I actually experienced it that I realized how much the slightest lack of purity from the personality affects my actions. And for me it expressed itself through a lack of motivation, of no desire to follow through on some of my actions. And that is because my personality has certain expectations. As a teacher or a mentor, your personality may have expectations of what your teaching is going to produce or cause. Similarly, when you're giving talks or producing a podcast, you may have expectations of the results.

Speaker 1:

Now, part of the purpose of a yogi is to build and to hold thought forms with a purity of intention for the greater good and the service to humanity, with no thought and intention for yourself and with no attachment to the outcome at all. And so we create a thought form, but as soon as it is built, we let it go, with no attachment to the outcome and no expectation of its effects. And this is an ongoing lesson for me and for all yogis, and one which I've been learning, particularly throughout this week, and I'm always excited to learn these lessons, and, as a yoga, they become ever more refined and subtle in nature. It's no longer about the colour of dye or bubbles in the water, but about the subtlety of the light that passes through and is being held within the essence of that water. And as I put these lessons into action within my day-to-day life, I am striving always to live that ordinary life in an extraordinary way.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to A Little Light on the Path and thank you to all my subscribers. Your monthly donations are what enable me to continue to produce further future podcasts for you all. I can also be found on the Wisdom app every Sunday at 7pm GMT, where you can guest on my talk and actually talk directly with me. Otherwise, I can be found on Facebook and Twitter or X, under A Little Light on the Path.