Journey With Yoga estimated publication date: Dec 2025

Sample Chapter: Consciousness and the Divine: Greek Gods, Yoga and Enlightenment

This sample chapter is also available in a summarised mp3 audiobook and in an upcoming mp4 video. For those interested in reading, scroll down for the text unabridged html version. All renditions are suitable for consumption on mobile phones, laptops, and similar. These book excerpts interpret Ulysses&eapos; escape from the dark cave from Polyphemus as a story of departure from ignorance, a story of enlightenment. The video will be ready soon in August 2025.

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Chapter: Consciousness and the Divine: Greek Gods, Yoga and Enlightenment

Where we are in the journey: In the previous chapters, we talked about how to do Yoga. In the very last chapter we introduced Carl Jung and Yoga, exploring concepts like ego, shadow, and symbolism. For further reading on this topic, consider Dario Nardi's "Jung on Yoga".

This chapter elevates our exploration of Jung and Yoga, delving into the realms of consciousness and the divine. This is the first of many chapters on where Yoga takes us.

The next chapters will explore the divine within us as pure consciousness, culminating in the unveiling of a triptych painting that connects our entire journey.

From Animal to Superhuman, Divine

"Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the beyond man/superman (German: übermensch)—a rope over an abyss. A dangerous crossing, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous trembling and halting. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal" – from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Friedrich Nietzsche

This quote serves as a perfect introduction. If man is a bridge spanning the chasm between the animal and the superhuman, or divine, what is left behind? And what awaits on the other side?

To understand the animal nature left behind, we turn to the story of Ulysses and the Cyclops from the Odyssey in the section "Ulysses Walks from Darkness into the Light". Here, our hero Ulysses (Greek Odysseus), escapes the dark cave of a one-eyed ogre, symbolising a departure from ignorance. He ingeniously plots his escape, and walks-out with humility, on all fours, cloaked in a sheepskin (representing both the animal nature and purity) until he can finally stand upright in the light.

As for the superhuman nature man embraces at the other end of the bridge, the upcoming section, "The gods Within Us", explores how Greek gods, and similar constructs in Yoga, serve as bridges to unite us with the divine.

Nietzsche's choice of "superhuman" is fitting. Hindus consider the Vedas to be 'aparuruṣeya', which means "not of a man, superhuman". These ancient texts, the first to mention chakras over 2700 years ago, describe a typical experience where energy ascends from the lower chakras (associated with animal nature) to the higher chakras (linked to the divine and transcendent). The last chapter guides us through a tantric meditation, visualizing this upward movement of energy.

Above, when I said, "the typical chakra experience is for energy to rise from the lower chakras to the higher ones", it is because the experiences with chakras can vary a bit.

There are people who, at one stage of their lives, have not felt any energy moving up the spine, but have instead just felt the head chakra open with all its consequences such as experiencing great bliss, liberation. These could be people who have never done a chakra visualization exercise before, and have just worked for instance with prāṇāyāma, mantras, and bandhas. Yet they experience chakras in the expected positions in their bodies.

Later in life, the same individuals may experience the rising of kundalini energy from the lower chakras to the higher ones, sometimes accompanied by a mild burning sensation. This can occur even without specific exercises that help focus us on visualising this burning sensation (such as Tummo). Though prior practice with chakra and energy visualization may contribute to the experience, it is still real and not just fabricated.

What is even more special about the Nietzsche quote is that it sees man as unfinished, as always in the making, as a process (using the bridge metaphor). We spoke about this the previous chapter, "The Path of Yoga". We spoke about how the yogi needs to focus not on closed conceptual definitions of oneself, but on an open-ended journey, a process, a set of continuously improved functions.

Of course, if you are in between reading Nietzsche and the Vedas, I would 100 times more recommend the Vedas for a yogi. Simply because yogis are on the practical philosophy side: meditation, working with energies, having a different way of life, and a different way of being conscious. But it is not surprising that other less practically-oriented philosophers such as Nietzsche come to the same realization of man being a bridge, a process in between these two ends. Let us go over the bridge crossing.

Ulysses Walks from Darkness into the Light

To understand The Odyssey, it is important to analyse the Greek mind at the time the book was being written. For this, we can rely on a field of study called Homeric Psychology. Homeric psychology is a field of study with regards to the psychology of ancient Greek culture no later than Mycenaean Greece, around 1700–1200 BCE, during the Homeric epic poems (specifically the Iliad and the Odyssey, the later containing the story of the Cyclops).

The first scholar to present a theory was Bruno Snell in his 1953 German book. He argued that an ancient Greek person did not have a sense of self, and the Greek culture later "self-realized" or "discovered" what he considered the "modern intellect".

In 1951, Eric Robertson Dodds wrote how ancient Greek thought may have been irrational (relative to his). He posited that the Greeks may have known that a person did things, but the reason was attributed to divine externalities, such as gods and demons, not to internal dynamics.

Julian Jaynes, in 1976, stipulated that Greek consciousness emerged from the use of special words related to cognition. Some of his claims were empirically supported in a 2021 study by psycho-historian Boban Dedović. The study compared the word counts of mental language (words for the mind) between 34 versions of the Iliad and Odyssey. You can find most of the above in Homeric Psychology Introduction.

Here is Boban Dedović’s work on the opening-up of consciousness with the ancient Greeks: "Homer's Iliad and Odyssey include a total of eight such words that may be rendered as mind, heart, or spirit: noos (νόος), thymos (θυμός), psykhe (ψυχή), phrenes (φρένες), prapides (πρᾰπῐ́δες), kardia (κᾰρδῐ́ᾱ), kradie (κρᾰδῐ́η), ker (κῆρ), and etor (ἦτορ)." "Results showed that total word density of mental language (words for the mind) increased significantly from the Iliad to the Odyssey".

Ironically going from eight words for mind to three in English seems like a closing-up of consciousness. But let us stick to the Greek language (Sanskrit and Tibetan would equally fare as well as Greek on mind words).

The Iliad and Odyssey took their present form when Greeks learned to write using the N. Phoenician alphabet. Before that, the Greeks communicated the story by oral tradition, hence the multiple versions of the Iliad and Odyssey (with 34 versions studied over time).

In my opinion, the above research thesis that the Greek consciousness was opening-up by the time of the Iliad and Odyssey seems very plausible. Learning to write increases reflection and self-awareness. So much that psychologists recommend journaling to their patients.

The use of reflexive pronouns in the Greek language also increased by that time according to researchers. Not much later after the Iliad and Odyssey were put in written form, other key events on the opening-up of human consciousness took place. That would be the rest in history—literally (written history). I am referring to the much earlier writing of the orally transmitted Vedas mentioning chakras, and the historical Buddha's arrival and his teaching of enlightenment and consciousness states beyond what he learned from his masters. And let us not forget Christ, who came a little later and plainly was very conscious.

The story of Ulysses, where he visits the island of the cyclops as part of the Odyssey, can be interpreted as an opening up of consciousness. I must say that I have never encountered this story interpreted as one of enlightenment as I will interpret it below.

I will tell the story in a summarized way. Please read the unabridged version for free online if you wish.

Polyphemus is the one-eyed giant living on an island with other cyclopes (one eyed creatures). His name means "abounding in songs and legends", "many-voiced" or "very famous". Every night Polyphemus takes shelter in a cave where he sleeps with his sheep.

In Homer's epic, Ulysses lands on the island of the Cyclopes during his journey home. And, together with some of his men, enters a cave filled with provisions.

After the giant returns in the evening and eats two more of the man, Ulysses mentions: "If we kill the cyclops, we will never be able to move the stone from the cave entrance." He needed a better plan.

Ulysses offers Polyphemus some strong, undiluted wine, which was given to him earlier on his journey. Drunk and unwary, the giant asks Ulysses his name, promising him a guest gift if he answers. Ulysses tells him "Οὖτις", which means "nobody" in Greek, and Polyphemus promises to eat this "nobody" last of all. With that, the giant falls into a drunken sleep.

Ulysses had meanwhile hardened a wooden stake in the fire, and now drives it into Polyphemus' eye.

In the morning, the blind Cyclops lets the sheep out to graze, feeling their backs to ensure that the men are not escaping. However, Ulysses and his men have tied themselves to the undersides of the animals in order to get away.

The Story Interpreted as an Opening-up of Consciousness

In mythology and in Jungian interpretation of dreams, it is common that different characters represent different personality aspects of a single person, the dreamer.

The story of Ulysses escaping the cyclops’ grip and walking into the light is to be interpreted as Ulysses transcending his own shadow and ego (the cyclops) and becoming enlightened (walking out from the cave into the light).

> In Homer's epic, Ulysses lands on the island of the Cyclopes during his journey home.

Yes, it is on the return home that one gets enlightened (i.e. leaves the darkness of the cave and walks into the light (c.f. 'returning home' on the last chapters).

> Polyphemus is the one-eyed giant living in an Island of other cyclopes (one eyed creatures).

A one-eyed creature is half-blind and lacks depth of field. A cyclops cannot see as well as Ulysses with his two eyes.

In India, they paint a red "third-eye" on the forehead to symbolise an awakened consciousness. In any case, the logic is this: the more eyes, the more conscious. It does not matter if it is two eyes instead of one as in Ulysses myth, or as in India, three eyes instead of two.

> The cyclops name Polyphemus means: "abounding in songs and legends", "many-voiced" or "very famous".

Funny name: "abounding in songs or legends". One of my favourite definitions of ego is this: ego is made out of stories we tell ourselves. Ego is indeed full of stories about who I am; what I promise I will do. These are identity creating stories that are charged with emotions—slimy stories that stick around, building one over the other. For instance, when we ruminate about past happenings, trying to somehow fix them, that is typically our ego setting the story straight instead of our consciousness trying to face our shadow and deconstruct or integrate. In our times, when a high-school girl says she wants to be a cheerleader or model to achieve popularity, that is often one such slimy story.

The "very famous" nickname of our cyclops sounds to me like what most egos want to be: "very famous".

The "many voiced" translation of the cyclops' name is really what a big ego looks inside one's mind: it is that inner voice that does not shut up during meditation. It is the chatter.

Every time I realize I am telling myself some story, or "wanting to be popular" like Shantideva says, I know what remedy to apply to avoid building more identity. Like my first teacher says: "a great man always believes to have more than he deserves". Thus, no more stories about who I must become, or what I must own, or so on. I can just be, just flow, just live the process, just cross the bridge.

> Every night Polyphemus takes shelter in a cave where he sleeps with his sheep.

A cave—as Plato's cave—is a symbol for our own ignorance that only sees the shadows of what passes in front of the mouth of the cave. It is our own lack of consciousness, our dark, unenlightened state.

So here we have already a creature that is full of stories, deemed famous, and he has only one eye and lives in the dark. Hmm. Sounds like a mind under the grip of ego, not a liberated yogi mind.

To make things worse, Homer's cyclops eats people. A bit of a psycho perhaps? It's much like unfortunate people who get eaten by the ignorance of ego before they can finish the work of leaving the shadows of the cave.

This man-eating cyclops story sounds a lot like the “Mahamudra Chod”, where you meditate about your own ignorance in the form of a giant pig eating your own body. Pigs symbolise the ignorance poison in Buddhism, and this practice is supposed to make the meditator stop wasting a life that is eaten away by ignorance.

In the Mahamudra Chod, one can also meditate on his own lust in the form of a lustful being eating his physical body away. The same for hate. Giorgio Kienerk has a painting that may inspire your Mahamudra Chod meditation. It is called Lucifero. To find this painting, just use a web image search for the keywords: "Lucifero, Giorgio Kienerk".

You may know the Māhakāla Buddhist deity, the "big black" as it is known. Homer's cyclops reminds me a bit of Māhakāla in his early days before he opened an extra eye, becoming enlightened. If you search the web for Māhakāla you will find it in black, with its third eye already opened.

But who would leave this cave, and how? Our hero Ulysses has a cunning plan. His plan is like a path of Yoga, a path to get into the light.

Ulysses tricks the giant cyclops to fall deeply asleep while he stays awake. Here the cyclops symbolises Ulysses' own unenlightened state.

In other words, Ulysses puts the ego to sleep while he is there, present and aware. It is exactly like in a meditation where there is increased silence from the ego combined with the presence of a higher awareness and wakefulness.

The above is exactly how the Buddha got enlightened around 400 BCE, through meditation, and before kundalini practices—acting as a shortcut to enlightenment—became more developed in the 8^th century by the Mahasiddhas. And it is how Ulysses, way before 400 BCE, got out of the cave and into the light, as if guided through meditation and the action of the kundalini energy.

The story says Ulysses used a special wine to get the cyclops to fall asleep. For the Greeks and in many other ancient cultures, wine is a symbol of a magical transformation of grapes into something ethereal. The Greek Dionysian rites used wine as a symbol of the mystical experience. And let us not forget that Dionisius is depicted holding a rod (in kundalini, the central channel) with a pine cone at the top (the pineal gland associated with the head chakra).

With the cyclops drunk asleep, Ulysses pokes the single eye of this ego-resembling-creature with a wooden stake or spear prepared on fire. This act symbolises the kundalini fire energy rising through the spine, eliminating all darkness, neurosis, and blindness (burning the single-eyed, egoic way of seeing). When the kundalini reaches the head chakra, the person is fully conscious (as discussed in this chapter), and when it reaches the crown chakra the person transcends his condition (as covered in the next chapters).

In the artwork above, we can see the man-eating cyclops sitting, drunk with wine, while Ulysses and his sailors poke its eye with a stake. A snake appears parallel to the stake reaching the cyclops's forehead.

The above is what happens before Ulysses gets out of the cave and into the light. And the above is also what happens before enlightenment: the kundalini serpent energy rises-up the spine through the central energy channel. As it rises, it pierces through the chakras and eliminates ignorance, blindness, opens the third-eye and then reaches to the crown. (Notice how the snake in the plate touches the forehead of the cyclops, symbolising the unenlightened Ulysses). When the kundalini serpent or fire energy reaches the crown, full enlightenment sets in (c.f. next chapters).

The above comparison was brief in a single paragraph. Let us now go over it step by step.

Enlightenment in Buddhism is often depicted as the opening of the crown chakra, the thousand petalled lotus. This depiction is not just a metaphor. It takes place in the energy body and it is felt and described similarly by all who experience this process, including those in different, non-Buddhist cultures (see the Sivananda quote below). It starts with the kundalini fire energy rising through the central energy channel on the spine and piercing or opening all of the chakras including the head and the crown chakras.

Samadhi, or liberation, in Yoga is depicted thusly: "When Kundalini is taken to the Sahasrara (crown chakra) and when it is united with Lord Siva, perfect Samadhi ensues. The Yogic student drinks the Nectar of Immortality. He has reached the Goal. Mother Kundalini has done Her task now. Glory to Mother Kundalini! May Her blessings be upon you all!" – Sri Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

There are three multi-cultural symbols for the kundalini: a fire column, a rod, and a snake coiled at the base of the spine and rising all the way to the head. All three elements are present on the Greek plate above including the snake and the rod prepared on fire. It is often like this: when the ancients want us to see something they write it three or more times, it is like using bold in text. We will see that again with the Pashupati seal.

This makes it hard to interpret the snake as anything else here. For instance, we cannot see it as an animal that kills with the strongest poison as the cyclops does not die (ego also stays after enlightenment, but it is made transparent). Nor do snakes bite people in the head. If you"’ve had kundalini experiences, all of this is so obvious. But I am arguing here for those who’ve not had the experience yet.

In both the Odyssey and on the plate above, the cyclops is blinded. This symbolises Ulysses himself and his sailors leaving behind a single-eyed way of seeing in order to move into the light to see better and more consciously.

How does Ulysses move into the light? He moves on all fours under a sheep skin. The most important symbology here is that of the sheep as an animal. There are thousands of depictions of yogis meditating over animal skins (deer, tiger, etc.) See for instance Sivandanda"s portrait in chapter 1 where he sits on a deer skin. This symbolises the yogi’s mastery of the animal side. In kundalini, the sexual and animal energy is very powerful and needs to be mastered and directed through a different flow up the spine. One could also argue that the sheep is a herd animal, and that Ulysses" sailing journey is indeed a departure from the herd mentality typical of those who cocoon at home.

Besides being an animal, the sheep is a symbol for purity. Indeed, only those with a pure heart can leave the dark cave and see the light. Dear yogi friends, this humble sheepskin exit is our path to purity, our work on the shadow, our observances (yamas, niyamas, etc.). It is the feather from the Maät story where only the hearts that are as light as a feather enter heaven (or exit the cave if you wish). It is our leaving behind of a dark, one-eyed ego.

Only those with humility—bowing their head down; leaving on all fours—can see the light. And above all, those not claiming this walk into the light in their own name (building ego in the process). The others get eaten by the cyclops nicknamed "very famous".

On humility: "Take the lowest place, and you shall reach the highest." – The Yogi Milarepa. And, "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen." – Christ. And, "It's great to be great, but it's greater to be human" – Will Rogers

Homer's cyclops—which can symbolize ego—promises a gift if Ulysses reveals his name. Ulysses resists the temptation of any gift, reward for any of his achievements—resists above all the temptation of identification, as offered by what symbolizes ego. This de-identification is laya Yoga, the Yoga of dissolution, which culminates in a Kundalini, chakra opening experience. More about that in the next chapter.

Finally, Ulysses (or nobody) walks into the light with some of his sailors. They stand firm in the light. A final word regarding Ulysses: Somebody asked Eckhart Tolle, "Who gets enlightened?". Tolle's answer: "Nobody, nobody gets enlightened. It is just the ego that becomes transparent". Thus, we can see the ego for what it is, look at it in the eye and see the coward in it.

On "nobody", a better answer would be "an illusion" or "I don't know". The emperor said, "Who is this facing me?" Bodhidharma said, "Don't know." And, "Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist. Mortals keep creating the mind, claiming it exists. And arhats keep negating the mind, claiming it doesn't exist. But bodhisattvas and buddhas neither create nor negate the mind." – Bodhidharma

Let's return to our introduction quote from Nietzsche. If man is a bridge from animal into the superhuman, to the divine, then the story of Ulysses is all about leaving behind that animal side, that one-eyed Polyphemus cyclops, an ogre living in darkness.

But how about the approaching of the other side of the bridge mentioned by Nietzsche? That is, the superhuman, the bright-side, the divine? If you want to know more about walking into the light, we will go there in the section, "The Gods Within Us, The Gods For Us, The Gods Against Us", and the next chapter.

I sincerely hope this story interpretation helps us tie together various threads: Jung's concepts of Shadow and Ego, Symbology, Greater Consciousness, and Walking-into-the-light.

By the way, you may be surprised by how the ancient Greeks exchanged knowledge with Yoga, Buddhism, Shaivism, Jainism, Sankhya, and Tantrism. For that, see, "Orphism: The Ancient Roots of Green Buddhism", by Ralph Abraham.

Exercises

Exercise 1: Try to think of yourself as nobody, like Ulysses did. Does it hurt if you try? Where does it hurt? Make this who that hurts become a what. Is it real? Can you function without it? Or above it? And later with less and less of it?

My exercise 1 answer: My answer to this exercise has changed over the years. For a while it would hurt something in me to think of my ego as nobody, as an illusion. I wanted to be someone and to identify myself with things I did. After a watershed period, this changed. Now, if I think of ego as nobody, emptiness, and an illusion. This brings happiness, bliss, weightlessness. This de-identification improved how to make better decisions, avoid bias, avoid danger, think clearly, build a better world, and be creative. My whole being functions better and more productively without having to grow an ego. Even better, expressions of life bloomed: scientific articles, software projects, relationships, and financial security. Everything improved, sometimes more qualitatively than quantitatively.

So, who am I, if I am not only my body; and if I am not only my ego? And yet I am conscious of them. Am I a bridge? A process? A function? An ever-changing metamorphosis who does not know who he is? A flower blossoming? We explore this question in the next chapter on consciousness.

This, which is the most enlightening in us, seems to be the capability of having humility and calling ourselves nobody. Like the blissful Lama Yeshe said, "Renunciation, this is what matters."

Exercise 2: Do you know any other stories of a hero on the interface of light and shadow, fighting with a monster such as the cyclops? Can you find and read more of these stories? Killing a dragon in a cave? Saint George killing the dragon? Vishnu’s journey into Hell? How about entering the belly of a whale from the depths, and then coming back into the light? Persephone descending into the underworld and returning? Orpheus descending there to rescue Eurydice?

Here is what Joseph Campbell has to say about these stories, with my comments interspersing the quotes or as footnotes: "The first stage in a hero's adventure is leaving the realm of light, which he controls and knows about, and moving towards the threshold." Think here of Ulysses going into the shadowy cave to meet the cyclops. "And it's at the threshold that the monster of the abyss comes to meet him." Think again of the Cyclops. So this is akin to work on the shadow.

"And then there are 2 or 3 results: 1. the hero is cut to pieces and descends into the abyss in fragments to be resurrected." This is similar to being eaten by the Cyclops or the Mahamudra Chod. "2. He may kill the dragon power, as Siegfried does when he kills the dragon. But then he tastes the dragon blood and assimilates its power. Now he hears the song of nature." This is similar to "hearing the voice of truth" (as I will call it) in the next chapter. And, "He has transcended his humanity, re-associated himself with the powers of nature, which are the powers of our life, from which our mind removes us."

"You see, this thing up here, this consciousness, thinks it's running the shop. It's a secondary organ; it's a secondary organ of a total human being, and it must not put itself in control. It must submit and serve the humanity of the body."

This quote immediately above, also from Joseph Campbell, relates to body compassion and reconnecting with your body and nature, what I call "rewilding", covered in the next chapter. The whole quote relates to what we said before: "ego consciousness is a terrible master and a great servant". It also relates to the two prayers for motivation, the prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi and the poetry or prayer from Shantideva. Both prayers put consciousness in service of the humanity of the body and more (where there is darkness, let me bring your light, and so on and so forth). Please dive into these related wisdoms. How can you connect the dots as part of this exercise?

Finally, what is your own myth at the interface of light and shadow and your own cyclops or dragon in the cave? How to get through it?

Exercise 3: If you are interested in kundalini symbology, I suggest you consult Anne-Marie Wegh's website and articles. She is a kundalini symbology expert. I was first convinced that the spear poking the cyclops’ eye symbolised the kundalini energy. I went in search of other authors believing the same, or evidence of it. This is when I found Anne-Marie's page with the same interpretation for the stake, rod or spear: https://www.anne-marie.eu/kundalini-symbolen-speer/ . She managed to back-up her explanation with the Greek cup from 560 BCE showing clearly the kundalini serpent touching the head chakra of the cyclops.

The gods Within Us, The gods For Us, The gods Against Us

<This is part 2 of this chapter and will be available in the book release. We are still working on it as of this sample page publication.>