Freedom is right here and right now...

Whenever there is desire, attachment, identification, expectation, craving and aversion, there will always be all sorts of impurities occupying the mind, forming a restless state of mind which makes the mind thinks or feels that ‘I am not free’. And that initiates the desire of ‘I want to be free’.

And this process of thinking ‘I am not free’ and the desire of ‘I want to be free’, or, ‘I want to be free’ because ‘I am not free’, is what makes the mind not free.

It is not because we cannot do what we want to do, or we don’t know what we should be doing.

It is not because we don’t have the physical or mental freedom to think what we want to think, or to do what we want to do, or to say what we want to say, or be at where we want to be, or to be what we want to be.

It is the ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, expectation, craving and aversion in the mind which give birth to all sorts of impurities, that is binding the mind, making the mind thinks and feels that it is not free, or ‘I am not free’.

It is nothing to do with all the names and forms of what we think or can’t think, what we do or can’t do, what we say or can’t say, where we are and are not, or what we are and are not.

If the mind is free from ignorance and all its by-products, then whatever we think or don’t think, whatever we do or don’t do, whatever we say or don’t say, wherever we are and are not, and whatever we are and are not, we are always free as we are.

Learn how to be free from the perception and identification of ‘I am not free’.

There is no ‘I’. Who is there to think and feel ‘not being free’? Who is there to think and feel ‘want to be free’? Who is there to perceive and experience ‘not being free’ and thus desires ‘to be free’?

Every thinking, or feeling, or perception, or experience, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, it is not the truth, and it’s all impermanent.

Om shanti.

May all be free...

All kinds of suffering, unrest, ignorance, selfishness, unjust, violence, dissatisfaction, disappointment, and fear will always exist in the perception of names and forms in the worldly life existence of the ignorant and egoistic minds.

Buddha taught living beings how to be free from suffering.

Buddha didn't teach living beings how to make the world of names and forms to be free from all kinds of suffering or unhappiness. Or Wishing there will only be desirable, pleasant and happy experiences, and no undesirable, unpleasant and unhappy experiences in the world of impermanent names and forms.

Buddha taught living beings to purify one's mind, cultivate one's kindness, to refrain oneself from evil thinking, action and speech.

Buddha didn't teach living beings to 'purify' other beings' mind, to make other beings to cultivate kindness, or to make other beings to refrain from evil thinking, action and speech.

As the world is just what it is. It is neither a suffering place nor a non-suffering place.

Suffering derives from ignorant of the truth and egoism.

To be free from suffering, one works on eliminating ignorance and egoism from one's mind.

As the perception of the worldly life existence is not outside the mind. It's within the mind.

Purify and tame one's mind, and be free.

The world of impermanent names and forms will still be what it is. All other beings will still be what they are. But, one is free from suffering for being free from ignorance and egoism while living in the world of impermanent names and forms.

This is not selfish.

No one can change another being.

One might can influence others to work on their own salvation when oneself is fully purified and be free from ignorance and egoism, without the intention to change other beings or change the world to be the way that the egoistic mind desires, or thinks how it should be.

Purifying and taming one's mind is the greatest contribution towards humanity and world peace and harmony.

May all be free...

Silent Retreat...

Silent retreat.

A period of renunciation.

Retreat from worldly affairs, social activities, personal duties and responsibilities, and from other beings/minds.

To perform the greatest duty and responsibility of mankind.

To focus on oneself.

To look after the well-being of oneself.

To find peace within, to make peace with oneself and others.

Some don't like it. It's normal.

Some have fear and anxiety towards the idea and practice of silence. It's normal too.

Some have high expectation from it. It's okay.

Some runaway from it. It's okay too.

Some fall in love with it. Not surprise either.

Some neither like it nor dislike it. It's just another experience.

Whatever it is, it's just the mind.

Attending one or many silent retreat(s) doesn't guarantee anything.

The mind can be even more restless and turbulent for being restrained in silent retreat.

Confronting impurities within one's mind can be quite unpleasant.

It's like try to clean up a long time blocked drainage system.

As we begin the cleaning process, more unpleasant stuffs being released and come up to the surface during the process.

Keep cleaning up the existing blockage little by little, and stop building up more blockage.

Fear not.

Be bold.

Be indifferent.

Be determined.

May all be free, be peaceful, be happy through silencing one's very own restless mind.

Anger and hatred in love relationship?

Some people came to this blog with the search word "Anger and hatred in love relationship"

If someone feels very unhappy, disturbed, or depressed being in a relationship, and has anger and hatred towards the partner by blaming his or her partner as the one who is responsible for his or her unhappiness, constantly thinking and believing that his or her partner doesn't love or care for him or her, or is being abusive towards him or her, at the same time, out of anger and hatred, he or she is constantly bitching about his or her partner to his or her friends, then there is something not quite right in this relationship.

If the partner is truly so bad and nasty, this person has a choice to step out from this relationship, move on and be free from all the unhappiness for being in that relationship with that partner. But then if this person tells himself or herself and other people, that he or she 'loves' the partner very much, and doesn't want to let this relationship go, then there is something really not right here with this relationship.

There's nothing wrong with being angry towards something that we don't agree with, don't like and don't want, but there's something not right if we have persistent anger, hatred and fear towards the person who is in the relationship with us, and we need to bitch about our partner. How can we say we love our partner very much when we bitch about him or her out of anger and hatred? This is not because our partner doesn't love us. But we don't really love ourselves and neither do we love our partner. We are unhappy, angry and hating is because we couldn't get the relationship the way that we want it to be, and we couldn't get our partner to behave and treat us the way that we like it to be. We didn't get what we like and want, but we are getting something that we don't like and don't want from being in the relationship. It's all about my desires, my happiness, my satisfaction, what I like and what I want.

It's like, "I love this relationship because it gives me certain things that I want, and I don't want to let it go. I also hate this relationship because I couldn't get some other things that I want for being in this relationship."

If the partner is truly so bad, doesn't love or care for us, and being in the relationship is so unhappy and disharmony for us, but for some reasons, out of personal interests or desires, we still want to be in that relationship or being reluctant to let go of the relationship, it shows that there is a problem, but it is not with the partner, it is with us.

Move on. If truly our partner doesn't love us, and is abusing and hurting us whether physically, or mentally, or emotionally. It's meaningless to continue to be in such relationship.

Move on. If life is so miserable by having this relationship, or life can be happier without this relationship.

If we realized that it is our own responsibility, and we think we love our partner, and we still want to be in the relationship, then we need to work on ourselves, learn how to love and accept ourselves as we are, without expecting the relationship or our partner to fulfill our desires.

Be happy.

Looking after our minds...

Yoga practice is looking after our minds particularly through observing certain observation and restriction of mental and physical activities to purify our thinking patterns, actions and speech in everyday life, besides performing some forms of physical and breathing exercises (Yoga Asana and Pranayama) to assist and support concentration and meditation practice (Dharana and Dhyana), to know the truth and be free from being determined or disturbed by the world of impermanent names and forms.

If our minds are highly sensitive towards all the names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses, and easily be affected by the pleasant and unpleasant qualities of name and form, and being restless being influenced and disturbed by the perceptions of names and forms, then we need to have certain degrees of limitation, or restriction, or filtration of what types of input that come in contact with the mind.

When the mind develops a strong foundation of non-attachment and non-identification, then all kinds of observation are unnecessary, and there's no need of limitation, or restriction, or filtration of what types of input that come in contact with the mind.

The practice of disassociation and non-identification with any names and forms is our basic yoga practice.

The worldly minded minds will want to avoid this type of yoga practice, and criticize this type of practice as anti-social and 'unhuman'. The worldly minded minds identify with the name and form of 'human beings' - "I am a human being. I am a good human being. Good human beings should have such and such qualities, should behave in such and such ways, or else we are bad human beings." We don't just expect ourselves as human beings we should behave in certain ways, but we also expect other 'human beings' also conform to our own projection and expectation, constantly generate separateness, conflicts, arguments, discrimination and hatred in oneself and others.

Yoga and meditation practice is not about strengthening or securing the worldly identification with certain qualities of name and form as this or that, but it's to drop off any identifications with any names and forms, realize non-separateness, or oneness beyond all the qualities of name and form.

It's the same as when we identify ourselves with a particular type of 'origin', 'nation', 'culture', 'religion', 'ethnic', 'personality', 'behavior', 'gender', 'sexual orientation', 'political group', 'professionalism', 'social group', 'yoga practitioner', 'yoga teacher', 'yoga lineage', or 'yoga group', we are not free.

Even by identifying oneself as a 'divine being' or 'spiritual being' is also not free from identification with qualities of name and form, and separateness.

Fear, discrimination (including discrimination of friends or not friends, human beings or non-human beings), pride and arrogance derive from separateness due to the identification with name and form. Unless we are free from fear, discrimination, pride and arrogance, there's no discrimination of friends or not friends, human beings or non-human beings, or else we can't be truly compassionate even though we would like to be a compassionate being.

Om shanti.

Be kind and compassionate towards oneself...

To be able to accept the reality that we cannot change the truth of impermanence in the worldly life existence that is subject to change, decay, sickness, old age and death, and we cannot make the world to be free from all kinds of physical, mental and emotional suffering, that we have not yet completely be free from ignorance and egoism, to be completely selfless and compassionate, to be free from fear and suffering that derived from attachment or clinging towards worldly life existence, at the same time we are determined to conquer our own mind to be free from ignorance and egoism, without any judgment, comparison and expectation, is being kind and compassionate towards ourselves.

Om shanti.

All kinds of different yoga practice exist to suit every beings with different types of temperament, ability and condition

All kinds of different yoga practice and path exist to suit every beings with different types of temperament, ability and condition.

There's neither superiority nor inferiority.

The only thing that will make a difference is that no matter what type of yoga practice and path that we are taking, it is whether we have the patience, perseverance, determination, self-discipline, self-control, self-awareness, dispassion, right discrimination, concentration, tolerance, forbearance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation, to be keep practicing without judgment, comparison or expectation, to free the mind from ignorance, egoism and impurities, until the mind is completely purified and be free form ignorance and the by-products of ignorance.

Watch out for the ego, when we start to think and believe that my path and my type of practice is the most superior form of yoga, that everyone should also follow this path and this type of practice.

Om shanti.

Righteousness, criticism and condemn...

Righteousness can cause a lot of damage and generates disharmony in our lives and in the society. It initiates dispute, argument, anger, hatred and unrest in a family, in relationships, in friendships and in the society, as everyone has different thinking and beliefs, and everyone has the freedom of speech and actions. For what? Just because there are ignorant and selfish people out there who didn't behave correctly and righteously, and as a good citizen and human being, we are obliged to make sure everyone behave the way that we think they should behave? Does it worth to cause damage and disharmony in our lives for other people's ignorance and ignorant behavior?

If we are truly compassionate, we do not cause further disharmony in our lives while expecting the world to be a better place, the way that we think it should be. How can we expect everyone in the world should think and behave, the same as ourselves?

Those who are truly compassionate will just perform the necessary actions without getting involve in the ignorance of other beings. As even by criticizing and condemning what and who we think are ignorant, will not remove the ignorance from anyone. Or else, Buddha could have just go around criticizing and condemning this and that being as his duty and responsibility as a good human being, and all ignorant beings would be free from ignorance, and the world would have be free from all kinds of ignorant beings with ignorant behavior.

If we think we are right and being righteous, we should criticize and condemn others for what we think is wrong and bad, but then why are we getting so upset when other people criticize and condemn us for what they think is wrong and bad, but we think is nothing wrong or bad?

Take a look into ourselves. When we get upset and angry with something that we don't like, don't want and don't agree with, it is not coming from other people ignorance or ignorant behavior, but it is because we cannot have the reality the way that we want it to be. We are getting something that we don't like and don't want. We are not getting the thing that we like and want. It's the craving and aversion in us that initiate the dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration and anger in us. It is nothing to do with other people's ignorant thinking and behavior.

We can be peaceful as we are, and do what we can do to maintain peace and harmony in ourselves and in others, and not by generate further disharmony among us and everyone else who are free to be different.

Think about it and be happy.

When we are aware of our mind is too busy with all sorts of imprints from all the worldly inputs that the mind being exposed to, then maybe it's the time for retreating from the worldly affairs, names and forms, to take care our mind before it goes wild.

Have peace in oneself if we want peace in the world.

Om shanti.

Who is being compassionate?

"I am compassionate. I am a compassionate being. I am compassionate towards other being's suffering. I am disappointed, frustrated and angry with other people who are not compassionate towards other people's suffering."

"I am compassionate" doesn't mean anything.

Before the egoism is eliminated, there's absence of compassion. There might be sympathy and empathy, but it's not compassion.

If the ego is absent upon the annihilation of egoism, who is there to identify as a compassionate being and being compassionate, and condemn others for being compassionate-less?

Compassion is free from the influence of egoism and all the egoistic qualities and its side products of impurities.

Compassion is spontaneous and natural as part of the essence of selflessness, the nature of all and everything.

Compassion is unconditional without any discrimination.

Compassion is free from attachment and identification.

Compassion is free from intention and expectation.

Compassion is free from judgment, criticism, blame and condemn.

Compassion is free from influences of anger, frustration, hurt and disappointment.

Compassion is free from influences and discrimination of religion, politic, region, nationality, professionalism, gender, age, sexual orientation, cultural belief, ancestry background, ethnicity, behavior, physical and mental condition, personal interest and benefit, personal likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements.

Compassion is undetermined by feelings and emotions, praise and condemn, compliment and criticism, success and failure.

Compassion is beyond separateness, qualities, names and forms, action and action-less.

Compassion is performing action (including action-less) without attachment, identification, intention, expectation, and renouncing the fruit of all actions (including action-less).

There's no "I am good. I want to be good. I want to do good. I perform good action. The result of my good action must be good."

There's no expectation "Everyone should be good, do good, perform good actions, and the result of good actions must be good."

Perform all actions, abandon the doer-ship, and allow the fruit of actions to be what it is.

Even though we might not be completely compassionate, but it doesn't matter. Just by intentionally doing some good actions to benefits other beings is already very good for humanity. We don't have to be a superhero that can clear away all the suffering in the world. Even enlightened beings also cannot remove the ignorance and suffering in other beings. We can just do our best for what we can do, to be kind to ourselves and others, without attachment and expectation.

Be happy.

Yoga practice for emancipation...

"I am not the body, the body is not mine.

I am not the mind, the mind is not mine."

This is the basic teaching and practice of yoga. But, for some, it seems to be almost impossible for the mind to be free from ignorance, to go beyond names and forms, to be free from being conditioned by the idea of "I" and all that is related to "I".

It is up to everyone to inquire or investigate into the truth of this teaching and all the other teachings from anywhere, and realize the truth through our own Self-inquiry.

Some people want to be able to go beyond all the names and forms, but find it difficult to practice non-attachment in everyday life. Many people don't want to go beyond the body and mind, to be undetermined by the impermanent changes of the body and mind to be "I", and be free. They rather cling onto the idea of "I" and life existence, being passionate about "I" and everything that is related to "I". They are determined by the impermanent body and mind, and all the qualities of name and form that they perceive through the senses to be "I", whether wittingly or unwittingly. They give themselves reasonable excuses why it is not necessarily to practice non-attachment or to renounce the world, to be peaceful and happy. They believe that life should be full of passionate desires waiting to be fulfilled to keep life going and meaningful, or else it isn't life. Dispassion and desire-less is unbearable and wrong for them. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's their freedom of choice for what they want to do with their life.

For those who are determined to be free from suffering, to be able to help other suffering beings efficiently, they will focus their entire life time and existence into the path of emancipation, gradually moving away from worldly ideas and passionate desires.

Due to the veil of ignorance, the ego, or the idea of "I" in the mind, generates attachment and identification with all these qualities of names and forms to be "This is I", to be existing, to be acknowledged, to be known. There's strong attachment and identification with the thinking, the belief, the knowledge, the state and the ability of the mind, and the condition, the ability and the appearance of the physical body, as well as all the relationships with other beings and objects, to be "I".

We are being determined by the impermanent qualities of the body and mind, and the relationships with other beings and objects to be confident, to be satisfied, to be happy, to be worthy and meaningful, or not. And all these qualities of name and form are subject to impermanence. And hence, the mind is constantly restless and dissatisfied. The stubborn attachment and identification doesn't allow the mind to be free from the idea of "I" and all that is related with "I". And this doesn't allow the mind to see the truth of existence, which is I-lessness.

Upon the realization of the truth of I-lessness, the mind will be liberated from all sorts of suffering that derived from ignorance.

From the attachment and identification with qualities of name and form to be existing, the egoistic mind generates ceaseless desires of wants and don't wants, craving and aversion, where all sorts of suffering arise.

"Is it necessarily to renounce the worldly social life and activities to be free from ignorance and suffering?" Well, it depends on each individual whether we have strong self-discipline and an undistracted mind, or not.

If our mind has rooted firmly in non-attachment, and is undistracted or uninfluenced by whatever the mind comes in contact with, or interacts with, being undisturbed or unaffected physically, mentally or emotionally, then we can mix freely into the society and involve with social activities freely, unrestricting the activities of the body and mind, while having the strong self-discipline and concentration maintaining one-pointedness towards the complete annihilation of ignorance.

If our mind has not yet develop a strong foundation of non-attachment, and is easily distracted and be influenced by whatever the mind comes in contact with, or interacts with, easily being disturbed and affected physically, mentally and emotionally, then we will need to renounce worldly social activities for a period of time, to allow the mind to be quiet and still for a sustained period of time to be able to reflect upon the truth as it is.

If emancipation is not what we are looking for, then be free to live a passionate and unrestricted worldly life. Be happy with what we want for our life. But then when we experience disappointment and suffering, and feel hurt, disturbed, angry, or depressed about the reality that we don't like and don't agree with, it is our own choice as well.

Anyway, there are no shortage of New Age 'yoga teachers' in the modern world teach about "Follow all your desires, be passionate and indulge in worldly sensual enjoyment" as liberation. Why bother about renunciation to perform Sadhana that is so wrong, unnatural and painful for the worldly egoistic mind. As even when someone tries to renounce the world, it doesn't guarantee that this being will be liberated, if there's no real renunciation.

Some might think that we are now existing in an new era, renunciation is outdated. Some people who love their yoga and meditation practice might think that there's no need to renounce the world, they have already gotten the benefits that they wanted from their yoga and meditation practice. Some think that they are somehow smarter than those past enlightened beings who all had went through renunciation, seclusion and intense Sadhana for many years to attain liberation, and then came back to the world to help other beings to attain liberation. It's our own freedom for what we want for our lives.

Be happy.

How to help other beings who are in suffering?

To be able to help other beings to be free from all kinds of suffering in this world of impermanence, ourselves must first be free.

To be free from suffering is none other than to annihilate the egoism, practice non-attachment, let go of identification and desires of craving and aversion, go beyond all the names and forms, be free from ignorance, seeing the truth of things as they are, make use of this body and mind for attaining emancipation or Self-realization, and to perform selfless actions through this life existence.

Everyone must work hard independently by themselves through their own effort, concentration and determination to be free from ignorance, the root cause of all sufferings.

When we see other beings being in physical, mental and emotional suffering, and out of compassion, we might want to help as much as we can, to provide financial, medical, moral, physical, mental and emotional supports. But, all these supports have certain limitation. We might feel frustrated, disappointed, angry and depressed about situation that is out of our ability and control, or the reality is not the way that how we like it to be.

Whether the experiences that we go through in this life existence are pleasant or unpleasant, good or bad, joyful or sorrowful, easy or hard, all experiences are here to allow us to work on personal evolution and emancipation.

By letting go of egoism, attachment, identification and expectation, there's no clinging or craving towards the pleasant or desirable experiences, there's no aversion towards the unpleasant or undesirable experiences. The mind will be resting in a state of equanimity being free from all sorts of impurities like anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, distraction, agitation, depression, feelings of hurt, guilt, regret, ill-will, ill-thinking, fear, worry, and etc. An equanimous mind allows itself to perceive or reflect the truth of names and forms as they are, without being disturbed, or influenced, or determined by all the different qualities of name and form, whether they are pleasant or unpleasant. There's no attachment onto all the perceptions of name and form.

This is not the same as those who are mean, hard and cold, without thoughtfulness, sympathy or empathy towards other beings difficulties or suffering.

If we are not free from ignorance, then even though we think we are quite intelligent, knowledgeable, skillful and compassionate beings, and we want to help other beings who are suffering all kinds of difficult conditions and situations, we can't eliminate all the sufferings in the entire world due to many limitations of a worldly life existence. If we have attachment and expectation, we will be in a state of frustration, disappointment, depression and anger.

Everyone has the right and their own reasons to perform actions, or not, to decide what they want and don't want.

Nobody can condemn another for what they think and believe, what they do and don't do, what they want and don't want, what they agree and don't agree with.

Just like when somebody decides not to have any children in life due to certain reasons, that is his or her freedom of choice. No one can condemn this person for not wanting to have children.

If people want to have many children of their own and also love to adopt some other children who don't have parents, or a family, or a home, within or exceed their capability, that is their freedom of choice. No one can condemn them for wanting many children. We have to take the responsibility for our decision to be having these children, and to provide and support them until they are independent. We also have to endure all the hardships that may arise due to the responsibility that we have committed ourselves into.

Untrained minds are unpredictable. A mind used to be very calm, positive, happy and kind might lose its balance under extreme condition, situation, pressure and desperation. One might be over-powered by selfish desires or survival instinct, loses its calmness and will abandon morality, self-control and righteousness, and commit violence or immoral behavior.

The best charity we can give to all beings is not about giving food, shelter, emotional and educational support, so that everyone can have the ability to make a living to feed themselves, or having the opportunity to have their own home and build a family, or having a sufficient comfortable living, or having higher education, but it's the knowledge of how to be free from ignorance and suffering, to be able to live in peace and harmony from within, undetermined by any qualities of name and form, having the ability to maintain equanimity and clarity of mind, being free from the influence of anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, ill-will, violence, or fear, under any circumstances, condition and situation.

As even by having opportunity in life to grow and improve, and knowing how to make a living to feed ourselves, or having a comfortable living and higher education, it doesn't guarantee that we will be peaceful and live in harmony, if we are not free from ignorance. There's no guarantee that once a being is being provided with the basic need for survival, this being will also be free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, craving, aversion, desires, greed, anger, hatred, dissatisfaction, disappointment, jealousy, offensiveness, defensiveness, violence, ill-will, fear and worry.

When a being is free from ignorance, then it doesn't matter what is the life experience, or how is the life condition, or how is the environment, this being is not being affected, or disturbed, or influenced, or determined by all the impermanent pleasant and unpleasant experiences of the body and mind. When the mind is free from desires of craving and aversion, there's no clinging onto life existence, there's no suffering even though life can be really difficult and life threatening. This being will be able to confront any condition and situation calmly and patiently, and doesn't crave for or expect any forms of assistance and support. This being doesn't need to be free from suffering, as there's none.

Om shanti.

Detachment...

There's no need to reprogram the mind. We just need to deprogram what has been programming the mind. Reprogram is like take it out from the existing box and put it into another box that we think is nicer. Abandon any box, no matter how 'nice' it seems to be, and be free.

Do not mistake anger and hatred as a form of compassion...

Anger and hatred towards bad beings and happenings or undesirable condition and situation is nothing to do with compassion. Anger and hatred exists in the mind is derived from ignorance and its side products of egoism, attachment, identification, craving, aversion and expectation.

Anger and hatred out of righteousness is merely violence unto oneself. We are not kind to ourselves if our minds are influenced by anger and hatred out of righteousness, even though we think we are showing empathy and sympathy towards others suffering. We are not any different from whom and what we are angry and hating about (for being ignorant), if our thinking and behavior is influenced by anger and hatred towards beings and happenings that we don't like and don't agree with, that we think they are the cause of ours and others suffering,

Being able to show sympathy or empathy towards other people's suffering doesn't guarantee that we are free from ignorance and impurities. We can still be disturbed and influenced by anger, hatred, dissatisfaction, disappointment, feelings of hurt, fear and worry towards names and forms that our minds don't like and don't agree with.

This is not the same as compassion, as compassion is being aware of the reality as it is, without being disturbed or influenced by the reality that our minds don't like and disagree with. With compassion, there won't be any impurities derived from the mind reaction towards any unpleasant or undesirable condition and situation. Compassion is free from discrimination influenced by the likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements of the impure egoistic and passionate mind.

Compassion exists side by side with wisdom. Without wisdom, we mistake anger and hatred towards bad and evil beings and happenings as a form of compassion.

With compassion and wisdom, we are aware of suffering and problems without being disturbed or determined by it. We are able to perform necessary actions to improve the condition and situation efficiently under a calm and peaceful mind without the violence of anger and hatred.

We don't have to be angry or hating towards bad and wrong doings to show that we are good and kind beings who don't accept or don't support bad and wrong doings.

Be free.

Respect the law of impermanence, and be free...

If we truly know and respect the law of impermanence, there's no attachment, identification, expectation, craving and aversion towards all the names and forms.

We are aware of all the impermanent changes without being disturbed or determined by it, whether the changes are something that we like or dislike, want or don't want, agree or don't agree with.

There's no need to push away, or deny, or ignore the reality that we don't like or don't agree with.

We can do our best to maintain or to improve the good condition of names and forms, but without attachment, clinging, craving or expectation. We can do our best to minimize the risk of bad condition, but without attachment, aversion or expectation. We can do our best to make our life and the world to be better, but without attachment, identification, or expectation. It is not about try to control or change the reality to be the way that we like it to be. When impermanence strikes, we are peaceful as we are, being undisturbed, undetermined by the impermanent changes. As our peace, happiness, confidence, or sense of meaningfulness doesn't come from any qualities of name and form.

There's no clinging or craving towards the names and forms that the mind recognizes as good, beauty, positive, pleasantness, happiness and righteousness.

There's no aversion towards the names and forms that the mind recognizes as bad, ugliness, negative, unpleasantness, unhappiness and unrighteousness.

There's no dissatisfaction, disappointment, depression, anger, or fear towards all the unpleasant or undesirable condition and situation.

It is beyond acceptance as well. We don't have to force ourselves to accept the reality that we don't like or don't agree with, but we are not affected, or disturbed, or influenced, or determined by the reality that we like or don't like, agree or don't agree with.

Knowing that whether it is something good or bad, beautiful or ugly, positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant, happy or unhappy, righteous or unrighteous, whether it is something that we like or don't like, agree or don't agree with, they all are impermanent. They exist, they change, and they will cease existing.

If we ever experience dissatisfaction, disappointment, depression, anger, or fear, it is not coming from the impermanent changes of all the names and forms, nor it's because of the reality is not the way that we think it should be, but it is coming from our own attachment, identification, craving, aversion and expectation.

If we have attachment, identification, craving, aversion and expectation towards the names and forms, and try to control or change the reality to be the way that we think it should be, then we will react with great dissatisfaction, disappointment, depression, anger, or fear, when the reality is not the way that we want it to be.

By reacting with dissatisfaction, disappointment, depression, anger, or fear, will not undo the reality that we don't want, nor change the reality to be the way that we think it should be. We can perform actions that are necessary to improve a condition or situation, but without attachment, identification, craving, aversion or expectation, and allow the fruit of our actions to be what it is, as it is, and be free.

Those who think they love yoga and meditation practice, and identify themselves as yoga and meditation practitioners, and those who identify themselves as yoga and meditation teachers, should know that this is the fundamental and essential teaching and practice of yoga and meditation.

Om shanti.

Feel free to practice yoga, or not...

Yoga practice is not a religious practice.

There's no discrimination, or judgment, or praise, or condemn towards anyone whether good or bad, happy or unhappy, ego-less or egoistic, wise or ignorant, compassionate or compassionate-less, peaceful or peace-less.

There's no sin or punishment from anyone or 'God' if someone didn't practice correctly according to the Scriptures or teachings, or when someone wants to stop practicing yoga, or when someone doesn't agree with or doesn't like some parts or all of the teachings and practice of yoga, or the Truth, or the Dharma.

'Heaven and hell' is in the present moment now, in our mind. It's in this moment now, whether our mind is influenced or uninfluenced by ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion, unhappiness, painful sorrow, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, feelings of hurt or guilt, ill-will, ill-thinking, restlessness, fear and worry, and all kinds of impurity and suffering, that determines whether we are in 'heaven' or 'hell' within our own mind. It is not about how much good or bad that we do or don't do in this life existence, and then we will be judged, and either go to 'heaven' or 'hell' after death, or when this life existence comes to an end.

We can be doing a lot of good actions and don't do any bad actions according to what the religious teachings said or judged as good or bad actions, but we still can be experiencing unhappiness and suffering, if our minds are not free from ignorance and all the by products of impurities that derived from ignorance.

Yoga practice is about freeing the mind from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion and all sorts of impurities. In this present moment now, peace and compassion is there when the mind is free from ignorance. We won't be peaceful or compassionate if our minds are not free from ignorance and all the impurities, even though we have been performing rituals and prayers frequently, or studying and memorizing all the teachings in any religious Scriptures, or we have been performing yoga and meditation practice frequently, or studying and memorizing all the texts in the Yoga Scriptures.

Yoga practice is about perform all our actions, duties and responsibilities without egoism, attachment, identification, intention or expectation towards the actions and the fruit of actions. It's not about "Do good as it makes us feel good and happy", or "Do good and don't do bad, so that we will go to heaven and not going to hell", though there's nothing wrong in this to encourage more people to do more good in this life existence.

If our minds are not free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving and aversion, and all sorts of impurities, then even though we think we have done many good actions and didn't do any bad actions, we will still be influenced, be disturbed and be determined by whatever the mind perceives through the senses, as the mind unceasingly reacts towards all the names and forms based on what the mind believes what things are, and won't be peaceful or compassionate.

Being able to show sympathy or empathy towards other people's suffering also doesn't guarantee that we are free from ignorance and impurities. We can still be disturbed and influenced by anger, hatred, dissatisfaction, disappointment, feelings of hurt, fear and worry towards names and forms that our minds don't like and don't agree with. This is not the same as compassion, as compassion is being aware of the reality as it is, without being disturbed or influenced by the perceived reality that our minds don't like and disagree with. There won't be any impurities derived from the mind reaction towards any unpleasant or undesirable condition and situation. Compassion is free from discrimination influenced by the likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements of the impure egoistic mind.

Feel free to practice yoga, or not. It is our own freedom of choice for what we want to do with this body and mind, or this life existence.

Om shanti.

Be free...

The mind itself is neither good nor bad.

It's the subjective thinking and beliefs, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, as well as all the impurities that are occupying the mind that are being projected onto everything that it perceives through the senses of what it sees, hears, smells, tastes, touches and thinks.

Free the mind from the influence of conditioned subjective thinking and beliefs, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, and any impurities, the mind will see the truth of things as they are.

When we hear the sound of airplane flying over the sky during the yoga class, those whose minds are influenced by negative thinking will feel annoyed and disturbed by the sound, as their minds perceive this sound as 'unpleasant', 'annoying' and 'disturbing'. Those whose minds are influenced by positive thinking will feel challenged by the sound, as their minds perceive this sounds as something 'good' to help them in the practice of non-attachment. Those whose minds are influenced by the idea of 'Everything is God', will feel blessed by the sound, as their minds perceive this sound as 'Om', as a blessing coming from God to encourage them in their spiritual practice. Those whose minds are influenced by fear will feel terrified by the sound, as their minds perceive this sound as something 'threatening'.

Those whose minds are free from any influences, will be aware of the sound as it is, and allow the sound to be what it is, to be there as it is, without judgment or attachment. It is neither negative, nor positive, nor divine, nor fearful.

The sound has no intention or quality to be something negative to annoy anyone, or to be something positive to empower anyone, or to be something divine to bless anyone, or to be something threatening to terrify anyone.

No matter what type of influences that is influencing the mind perception of names and forms, whatever the mind perceives and how the mind reacts, whether the mind is positive or negative, whether it recognizes something as 'pleasant' or 'unpleasant', whether the mind feels 'good' or 'bad', it's impermanent.

Remove whatever that is occupying and influencing the mind, and be free.

Between compassion & vegetarianism...

We encourage vegetarianism for health and humanity reason, as well as to help calming the mind for meditation, but, I do not relate vegetarianism with compassion, as compassion is beyond what we eat or don't eat, nor to specify compassion as there will be completely no lives will be harmed by the life existence of this body and mind, unless our life existence on earth can be without hurting any living beings at all in our everyday life, whether intentionally or unintentionally, directly or indirectly.

I neither identify myself as 'compassionate being' nor 'not compassionate being'. I support the teaching and practice of compassion, but at the same time, I am aware that the life existence of this body and mind cannot avoid hurting some forms of living being in everyday life, whether directly or indirectly. Just like all the elements of fire, water, wind and earth, they have no intention to be good or bad, to be constructive or destructive, but everything is existing and cease existing due to these elements, at the same time.

If someone believes in the theory of being compassionate means that there shouldn't be any lives be harmed at all by the life existence of this body and mind, then either we shouldn't exist at all if we really want to be compassionate, or compassion is something unfeasible or unachievable in this life existence which cannot avoid hurting some other life forms at all.

Even though we do not wish to hurt any lives, but just by being existing, there will be many lives be hurt by the existence of this body and mind, whether directly or indirectly. Just by eating vegetarian food cannot justify that there's completely no living forms are being harmed by the existence of this body and mind, and during the entire process of food consumption from plowing the earth, planting, harvesting, transportation, until the preparation and cooking the plant based food.

If we are not free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, craving and aversion, we will try to protect the lives and welfare of certain living beings that we like and agree with, but we might hurt other living beings that we don't like and disagree with.

Out of selfish desires, craving, aversion, jealousy, anger, hatred and fear, we might do and say things that will hurt other beings. Just like some people might show intense passionate love towards certain beings, animals, or insects that they like, but they might not be able to show similar loving kindness towards some other beings, animals, or insects that they don't like. It's like, "I don't eat beef or fish as cow and fish are living beings like us and they are so cute, but I will kill rats, mosquitoes, cockroaches, flees, worms, ants, or spiders, as I don't like them, and I think they are bad and nasty," or "I love animals very much and I wish those who hurt any animals would be condemned to hell and suffer a lot," or "I love cats, but I hate dogs," and etc.

Being vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean that we are all nice and kind beings, or we are compassionate beings who are completely free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion, discrimination, ill-will, violence, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, fear, worry, painful sorrow and suffering. While being non-vegetarian doesn't necessarily mean that we are all bad and evil beings, or we could not be free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion, discrimination, ill-will, violence, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, fear, worry, painful sorrow and suffering.

There's nothing wrong if people think and believe that being compassionate means being vegetarian not eating meat or fish products, as everyone has the freedom of thinking and believe, and it does show certain loving kindness towards animals and fish, by not killing any animals or fish for food consumption. But then, we won't be free being conditioned by this thinking, as we are hurting many other life forms in everyday life either intentionally or unintentionally, whether we are aware or unaware of it, whether directly or indirectly.

It is a very hard decision, when life existence comes to a point that we have to choose to kill for food to survive, or rather die from hunger than to kill for food to survive. I do not encourage killing and yet I do not condemn those who have to kill for food to survive. Take a look at those who live in areas that have no basic food and safe drinking water at all, and who are suffering from poverty, extreme difficult condition, hunger and thirst. They have no basic food and safe drinking water for living, not to say to have choices of what type of food that they eat or don't eat.

Everyone might have different understanding and beliefs about what is compassion. One can never argue or debate about what is compassion based on every individual different thinking and definition about what is compassion.

There's nothing wrong if someone say that "To be compassionate, we should not eat meat or fish, nor killing any life forms." But we are not really compassionate even though we don't kill animals or fish for food to survive, or carefully not harming any life forms in the surrounding environment, if we are not free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion, and all sorts of impurities like anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, ill-will, ill-thinking, feelings of hurt, defensiveness, offensiveness, obsessiveness, possessiveness, fear and worry, constantly being restless and determined by all the names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses.

It is up to ourselves to realize what is compassion, and be free.

In the teachings of yoga and Buddhism, to be free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion, and all sorts of impurities like anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, ill-will, ill-thinking, feelings of hurt, defensiveness, offensiveness, obsessiveness, possessiveness, fear and worry, to know the truth of things as they are and realize unconditional peace beyond all the qualities of name and form, is being compassionate towards oneself and all beings.

We should appreciate and be grateful towards all beings and everything that is supporting all beings to be existing, to have the opportunity to be existing in this selfless impermanent life form to experience the inevitable restless suffering of the existence and function of a selfless perceptive thinking mind under the limited physical body that needs to be fed and maintained ceaselessly, and thus, be motivated to work diligently towards attaining liberation to be free from ignorance and suffering.

Liberation from ignorance and egoism in the mind, and annihilation/silence of the modification of this mind, is indeed compassion towards oneself and others. Having correct understanding towards the selfless mind perception of an impermanent worldly life existence, where all kinds of suffering are deriving from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance, while without being determined by all kinds of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance within the mind perception of the restless world of selfless impermanent names and forms, is compassion.

When we realize what is oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness, there’s neither vegetarian nor non-vegetarian. All are subject to the suffering of selflessness and impermanence, being governed by the nature’s law of cause and effect.

People can keep debating and arguing about vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism, that's their freedom of expression, action, speech, thinking and belief.

Be happy.

Be free, stop thinking "I am a victim of other people's bad and wrong attitude and behavior"

There's nothing wrong if our mind suffers unhappiness and depression as it reacts with disappointment, feelings of hurt and anger, when it feels disturbed by some unpleasant or undesirable experiences in life. But, this is not necessarily. The mind can be free from suffering of anger, hurts, and all sorts of unhappiness, if it is free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, craving, aversion and expectation. This suffering of unhappiness has nothing to do with other people's attitude and behavior, that people should behave in certain ways, but they didn't, or they shouldn't behave in certain ways, but they did.

When our egoistic mind perceives and feels hurt and angry by somebody's actions or speech that it thinks and believes as hurtful or wrong, it's normal that the mind will think and believe that "I am a victim of other people's bad and wrong attitude and behavior", at the same time it expects empathy and sympathy from some other human beings. When it gets the reaction and response that it expected, it feels better about itself by getting the support that it wants and it thinks it deserves. But when it doesn't get the reaction and response that it expected, the mind becomes more disturbed and unhappy, not because of the initial undesirable experience that it had, but it didn't get the support that it wanted and deserved.

Some people feel empathy or sympathy towards other people's suffering, most probably will think that these suffering people should be feeling hurt by other people's bad and wrong behavior unto them, and they should be angry. But this will only feed and intensify the anger and unhappiness in them, it won't help them to be free from the root cause of suffering, which is ignorance and egoism, and their side products of anger, hatred, feelings of hurt, defensiveness, offensiveness, craving and aversion, expectation, and etc.

We need to have the wisdom and courage to admit that 'what we think and thus how we feel' (being victimized, hurt, betrayed, disappointed, unhappy, angry, depressed, and etc), is our very own responsibility. It's not coming from other people's bad and wrong attitude and behavior, or how other people treat us. It's coming from our own mind perception of names and forms, and how our mind reacts based on what our mind believes what things are, under the influence of ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, craving, aversion and expectation.

Under the influence of ignorance and egoism, we expect all human beings should behave in certain ways that we think it should be. We expect ourselves should be treated in certain ways that we think we deserve to be treated. We expect other human beings should treat ourselves or one another in certain ways. When we feel disturbed, hurt, unhappy, disappointed, frustrated, angry, and etc, it's not because of other people's attitude and behavior are bad and wrong according to what our mind believes as bad and wrong, but it is because of our desires, carving, aversion or expectation are not being gratified the way that we think it should be. We are getting something that we don't like and don't want. We are not getting the things that we like and want, the way that we think it should be.

If we truly want to be happy and be free, we need to learn how to let go of the thinking and belief about "I am a victim of other people's bad and wrong attitude and behavior", and stop seeking empathy, sympathy and support from some other human beings. Nobody has the obligation to give anyone extra care, or attention, or special treatment that we think we deserved, the way that we think it should be, to make us feel better.

People are nice to other beings is out of loving kindness, compassion and free-will, it's not an obligation. Be grateful if there are people who are nice and be kind to us. But we cannot expect other people should be nice and be kind to us or to one another.

If other people are not nice and unkind to us or other beings, that is their freedom and their responsibility. We don't have to be disturbed and suffered for other people's attitude and behavior that we think and believe is not nice and unkind. It doesn't mean that we support other people to be bad and wrong, if we are not affected or determined by other people's ignorant behavior. But we don't have to suffer for other people's ignorance. Ourselves are under the influence of ignorance if we think we have to suffer for other people's ignorance. We are suffered is because of our own ignorance.

It requires great degrees of non-attachment, non-identification, self-awareness, self-discipline, correct understanding, patience, perseverance, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation, accommodation, forgiveness and compassion for us to be able to allow the reality to be what it is even if we don't like the reality and disagree with it, and let go of past experiences, not clinging onto the pleasant experiences, nor holding onto the unpleasant experiences, without being disturbed or determined by both pleasant and unpleasant experiences, to be compassionate towards ourselves, by free our mind from feelings of hurts, anger, longing or expectation.

Om shanti.