Jyotish and Western Astrology.

During the Meiji era, a university professor came to the Zen master Nan-in: he “wanted to understand Zen” and asked him to explain the teaching. Throughout the conversation it became clear that the professor kept showing off his erudition, arguing and interrupting. The master offered him tea. He began to pour tea into the guest’s cup, filled it to the brim and… continued pouring. The tea overflowed and spilled onto the table.
– Why do you keep pouring when the cup is already full? – the professor exclaimed.
– Like this cup, you are full of your own ideas and opinions. How can I show you Zen until you empty your cup? – said Nan-in.

The Western world, shaped by the works of Archimedes and Aristotle, perceives “knowledge” as a set of practical methods aimed at achieving results. In the East, “knowledge” is an independent phenomenon that exists beyond human experience. When a Western person wants to understand the world, they study fragments — and later assemble them into a whole. In the East, people first perceive the whole, and only then apply parts of it to solve tasks.

When a modern person has a question, they go to the internet. When a yogi has a question, they go to meditation. Modern science, when contemplating a theory of everything, builds the universe from scratch — step by step adding simple building blocks that then become more complex. From a yogic point of view, the universe is a limitation of the Absolute; and from the existing totality, only those elements are revealed that are needed at a given moment. If a Western person were to describe the evolution of the soul, they would begin with a primitive particle that develops by acquiring experience. Yogis say that the super-consciousness, which already possesses everything, withdraws part of its knowledge from itself in order to experience the limited “I.” The Western world moves from man toward god; the Eastern world moves from god toward man. The Western mindset counts from 1 to infinity; the Eastern mindset — from infinity to 1.

The same applies to Jyotish when compared with Western astrology: it moves in the opposite direction. We perceive planets as material celestial objects; Jyotish perceives grahas as mental objects in the mind. We see only the outer sunlight, but deep within the Earth its center is also a kind of inner Sun. When we want to see a material object, we look at it, perceiving reflected light. When we want to perceive a mental object, we close our eyes and see it with inner sight.

And here a natural question arises: How is our inner vision arranged? All types of external perception work either through electromagnetic waves — such as light, infrared or ultraviolet radiation — or through other signal carriers such as air or water for sound. Inner vision uses prana as an information carrier instead of light. When you close your eyes, you do not see darkness — you see countless shimmering dots, which scientists call phosphenes. These dots form spots or unusual shapes that can pulse or move. This is what prana looks like, and every living being possesses this vision.

When you fall asleep, these dots and shapes form the images of the coming dream. The formation of images is the work of manas — the bodily mind. It merely “looks at” the images in prana. Once an image is “formed” by manas, buddhi — the restless mind — recognizes something real in it. Referring to memory — chitta — the restless mind identifies the images and forms an attitude toward them. When all three stages are complete, we begin to understand that we are seeing something through inner vision. This is the physiology of inner sight from the perspective of yoga. I am sure you have encountered this concept often.

At the moment when the restless mind recognizes an image, it is literally illuminated by “the light of Isha,” the divine light. Each of us is a being of light that incarnates in a human body. Our light is no different from the light of universal super-consciousness — the light of god. It is our personal “I,” our personality, that perceives everything happening to us and forms our attitude toward it.

Look at a cup that you personally bought. What do you see? Just a cup? In fact, you see an entire story connected with this cup: where you bought it, how you drank tea from it yesterday, which guest drank from it when they visited you. If you see the same cup in a store, you will say: “Oh, I have the same cup at home!” These two cups are not identical for you. But they are identical for materialistic perception.

Now think: in which world do you actually live — in a world where these cups are the same, or in a world where there is your cup and not your cup? I am certain it is the second. You simply never noticed this difference because no one showed it to you. It was invisible — until I pointed it out. And now you cannot “unsee” it.

A graha in Jyotish is a capturer of attention — a focus that directs our inner sight. A graha does not have to be a planet. When I focused your attention on the difference between the two cups, I was a graha for you. We do not live in a material world, as modern science tries to convince us. Each of us lives in our own inner world. There is a difference between looking at two identical physical objects and experiencing two “identical” life situations.

If you open two natal charts — one calculated by Western rules, the other by Jyotish — they will be two different “cups.” Western astrology shows precise planetary positions, harmonious and tense aspects. Jyotish shows where your inner focus is directed now or in the future. Western astrology relies on statistics for predictions; Jyotish relies on the lived experience formed by those statistics.

Once, two identical twins were asked: “What fact influenced your life the most?”
One said: “We lived in terrible poverty, so I decided to get an education and earn a lot of money.”
The second said: “We lived in terrible poverty, so I had to learn to steal — and now I’m in prison.”
Their natal charts are identical. Their circumstances were identical. They even look identical. Yet each chose the destiny illuminated by his own soul.

Karma is not some mysterious energy; it is the sum of consequences that have changed you. Under identical conditions, a soul shaped by its own karma will make its own choice, will see the situation in its own way. Karma cannot be cleansed like a body can. No “karma cleansing practices” will work unless the soul itself changes in the process. Karma is the formation of habits that will influence your current life and all future ones. After death we leave everything behind — except our habits, our samskaras. An experienced Jyotishi, understanding what habits a soul has carried into this incarnation, can see which choice a person will make.

Every choice we make is based on our karma. What you do not need — you simply will not perceive. Every astrologer chooses the branch of astrology that matches his own nature. Every client chooses the astrologer who matches him personally. Everything else remains unseen.

Everything in this world exists for some reason — and this reason is always subjective. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the subject who wanted something to be arranged in a particular way. But one thing is certain: your life depends only on you. Your destiny is not your astrological indicators — your destiny is you. You created what you have. Yes, you used the situations offered by the stars, but you lived them. The transformation of your soul under the influence of karma has brought you to this point in time. And yet you naively believe you are controlling your destiny, because you are “making choices.”

One nuance: you made your choices earlier. The choice you make now will shape your next incarnation. Not even the choice itself — but the habits you develop throughout this life. They will transform you. And you will begin to act and perceive differently.

One person will assemble himself piece by piece to see his wholeness. Another will perceive himself as whole and then study his pieces. Western astrology assembles the whole from pieces; Jyotish extracts pieces from the whole.