Want to practice yoga? (5)

All the yoga enthusiasts or practitioners are being taught that one shouldn't follow or blind-believe in any teachings or philosophies from anybody and anywhere, including the teachings of yoga, but to perform self-inquiry to investigate into the truth of all the teachings of yoga. That action of self-inquiry is indeed the main yoga practice. All the other yoga practices are there to assist the mind to be able to be free from all kinds of restlessness and impurities, and allowing the mind to know the truth or seeing the truth as it is.

Contemplate on these teachings to attain self-realization of the teachings of yoga :-
- The body is not me, I am not the body. The mind is not me, I am not the mind.

- Selflessness or the annihilation of the egoism - There is no 'I'. 'I' doesn't exist.

- The root cause of suffering is ignorance - not knowing the truth of 'I' and all the perceptions of names and forms, the illusion of the existence of 'I' generates attachment, identification, desires, craving and aversion, reactions of likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, pleasantness and unpleasantness where all kinds of impurities arise and influencing and determining the state of mind.

- Go beyond all the qualities of name and form, including the body and mind and worldly conditioned thinking and beliefs, realize the truth of non-duality or non-separateness or oneness.

- The truth of names and forms is just what they are. Everything is neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither right nor wrong, neither happiness nor unhappiness.

- Know thyself or knowing oneself as the highest duty above all. All kinds of duties exist to support the highest duty towards oneself.

- The law of impermanence - there's no 'I' exists in all the impermanent changes or transitions, or forming and deforming.

- The observer is undetermined by the action of observing and the object of observation.

- Turning the outgoing mind inward, resting in silence - dispassion and disinterest in worldly objects and ideas.

- The conquest of one's mind is the highest goal of life existence and to serve humanity.

- The ignorant ones take what is unreal to be real, and take what is real as unreal.

- Performing all duties and responsibilities while renouncing worldly objects and activities.

- The realization of selflessness and compassion will allow one to perform all actions while being undetermined by the fruit of actions, to be liberated from good and bad karma, the cycle of cause and effect, or the wheel of birth and death - Enter into Silence or Samadhi.

- Everything is Maya (illusion). The world is not real and doesn't exist. Suffering doesn't exist. Birth and death doesn't exist. Due to ignorance, the illusory 'I' longs for existence to fulfill all its desires. And hence, all kinds of actions and fruit of actions sprung from desires and bring forth the wheel of birth and death, existence and non-existence, all kinds of names and forms are being projected as the worldly existence as the result of cause and effect. Yoga practice is to realize the truth and return to the state beyond names and forms, existence and non-existence, birth and death.

Happy practicing yoga contemplating upon the teachings of yoga.

Om shanti.

Want to teach yoga? (2)

Teaching yoga is being an instrument to transmit the teachings of yoga. There's no egoism involve in the act of teaching. There's no attachment and identification with the act of teaching and the fruit of the act of teaching. There's no 'I' teach yoga, or 'I' am a yoga teacher. There's no 'I' am performing action to benefit other beings, or other beings are benefited from the action of teaching from 'I'. It's like all the elements exist to allow everything to be forming and dissolving. They have no intention to form or dissolve anything, but everything forms and dissolves because of the elements. There's no egoism, self-interest, selfish desire, or good and bad intention.

One who has realized unconditional love and peace from one's self-realization of the truth, being free from ignorance and egoism, one can share one's knowledge or experience of the path of liberation with others out of compassion, although one isn't obliged to perform action in the world. One can only share one's knowledge and experience, and allowing others would be inspired to learn and practice yoga, or not, but one cannot make others be free from ignorance and egoism. One can guide others how to realize the truth, but one cannot make others to realize the truth.

The realization of unconditional love and peace and the act of sharing or teaching the knowledge or experience of oneself out of compassion, are nothing to do with yoga teacher's training courses, yoga alliances and yoga certifications.

One might hasn't attained direct experience about selflessness, non-attachment, non-identification, dispassion, right discrimination, craving and aversion, impurities, suffering and the cause of suffering, but one might still be able to teach some forms of yoga practices to other people.

In the end it is coming from everyone's self-effort, self-discipline, determination and perseverance to attain self-realization of the truth. It is nothing to do with the teacher is good or not, or is liberated or not. Coming in contact with a liberated being, or learning and practicing yoga under a liberated being also cannot guarantee that one will be liberated from ignorance and egoism.

Be free from pride and arrogance that derived from egoism about what we think we know, who we think we are, and what actions we think we perform, if we truly want to inspire others to be practicing the same, to be free from ignorance, egoism and all sorts of impurities.

Om shanti.

Want to practice yoga? (4)

Do we need to restrict or limit ourselves in social interactive conversation and activities when we take up yoga practice?

It depends on ourselves. Just like being a vegetarian or non-vegetarian doesn't guarantee that one is peaceful and be free from ignorance and egoism, it's the same as by observing any forms of yoga practice doesn't guarantee that one will be free from ignorance and egoism, and is peaceful.

Of course all the observations exist to serve their purposes or assistance in aid to purify and calm the mind, to allow the mind to be able to perceive the truth of things as they are.

Without the practice of non-attachment, non-identification, desireless, and letting go of craving and aversion, one's mind will always be affected, or disturbed, or influenced and determined by all the perceptions of names and forms, and is restless and have no peace, no matter how much external physical form of yoga practices we have been performing and attaining huge physical and mental benefits from the yoga practice. When the mind is restless and is under the influence of impurities, the mind is not able to see the truth of things as they are.

If we just want to practice yoga for attaining some physical and mental health and fitness benefits, then we don't have to restrict or limit ourselves in social interactive conversation and activities.

If we practice yoga for mind conquest, for liberation to be free from ignorance and suffering, then we need to restrict or limit ourselves in social interactive conversation and activities, if our minds are easily being affected, or disturbed, or influenced by all the inputs of names and forms. For those who have achieved a strong foundation of the practice of non-attachment and non-identification, and are not easily be affected, or disturbed, or influenced by all the inputs of names and forms, then there's no need to have such restriction, but they will still limit over stimulation to the mind as much as possible. Those who are completely be free from ignorance and egoism, and they are unaffected, or undisturbed, or uninfluenced by any inputs of names and forms, then they can mix freely into the society and engage in any forms of social conversations and activities, if they want, but they don't have to, unless it's necessary.

And hence, silent meditation retreat courses exist to serve this purpose to quiet the mind, to stop stimulating the mind, to move the mind away from worldly affairs, social interactions and activities. But, if we don't know how to retreat ourselves in everyday life, our minds will always be restless being distracted and stimulated by all the inputs of names and forms.

In most conversations, many people like to ask or want to know about the past and the future. Most people want to be friendly by starting a social interactive conversation, where they want to talk about themselves and also to hear other people talk about their stuffs, they want to give their opinions and also to hear other people's opinions, they want to know about other people and want to be known by other people as well.

There's nothing wrong with the worldly social interactions between human beings. But in yoga practice, it's about knowing oneself. It's not about knowing other people or want to be known by other people. Minds that are conditioned by worldly thinking and ideas might think that it's a form of selfishness when some people don't show interest to know about others. But in yoga, one practices disinterest in worldly affairs as well as other people's affair. It isn't that yoga practitioners don't care for what is happening to the world and other people, but one must take care of one's mind first before one can care for the world and others efficiently.

When one's mind is free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving, aversion and all sorts of impurities, and realizes unconditional love and peace in oneself, being firmly resting in peace undisturbed by all the qualities of names and forms, then naturally, without any intention or expectation, one will be contributing peace into the world by stop generating unrest and disharmony into the world. By taking care of oneself, to have peace in oneself, is actually loving and caring for the world and the society.

One must learn about oneself and know about oneself by quieting and purifying the mind through self-introspection and self-discipline, and then one will know how to love and care for oneself, before one can actually know about others, and love and care for others. The entire society will become more peaceful and harmony when everyone learns about oneself, knows oneself, and loves and cares for oneself.

On top of that, socializing, mingling and chit-chatting are good for worldly social interaction and public relation, but it is detrimental for yoga and meditation practice. Too much talking and social activities stimulate the thought waves and strengthens the worldly attachments, identifications and ideas, and empowering the desires of craving and aversion, if one hasn't developed certain degrees of correct understanding about the mind, the ego and suffering.

We can list out what people usually talk about in a social conversation, and see how much our minds are being influenced and affected by all those daily conversations about worldly matters. And we might realize what is the cause for our minds being over stimulated and suffer from restlessness, and from where we have been accumulating lots of physical, emotional and mental tension that we need to de-stress or unwind ourselves from time to time. If we know how to stop generating tension into our body and mind, we don't need to do anything special to unwind or relax.

Instead of exhausting energy in socializing or talking about worldly ideas and affairs, we conserve energy for practicing yoga. Talking about worldly ideas and affairs won't help anyone to be free from worldly identifications and attachments towards worldly names and forms, and won't make the world to be a better place. In fact, talking about this and that will stimulate the mind, and it doesn't help to quiet the mind. Yoga and meditation practice is mainly to quiet the mind. The states of the world will change towards peace and harmony only if each and everyone who are existing and living in the world has self-awareness and self-control, to make an effort to change themselves to purify and quiet their minds, to be free from ignorance and egoism. The world is just what it is. It is neither good nor bad. It's the occupants of the world that are projecting good and bad qualities into the world and contributing peace or unrest into the world under the influence of impurities. The one who is pure, being free from good and bad qualities, perceives the world as it is.

Yoga teaches about compassion, but it's not about trying to please everyone to make them feel good, happy and comfortable, by giving them whatever they like and want. But it's to allow everyone to be aware of what is going on in their minds, and realize the truth to be free from ignorance, and transcend suffering, realize unconditional love and peace that is not coming from anyone or anything outside this body and mind, but from within oneself unconditionally.

We learn to stay away from gossips, vain talks, conflicts, condemn, criticism, back-biting, and etc. When we have bad things to say about others, it's not because others are being bad and wrong, but it's because our minds are not pure. If our minds are pure, there's no bad thing to say about others, even if we are aware of something that isn't good and right about someone based on what our minds believe as good and bad, right and wrong. Worldly minded people might think that being silence towards things that are bad and wrong is supporting all those bad and wrong things. But, what people think and believe as good and bad, right and wrong, is very subjective, it's not necessarily the truth of what things are. By being vocally and physically violent towards something that is bad and wrong won't change the reality of those things being bad and wrong. But everyone must develop self-awareness and self-introspection in themselves to be aware of their own minds, to be initiative to make an effort to purify their own minds, to have self-discipline to restrict their physical and mental worldly activities, and have self-control over their own thinking, actions and speech.

By telling people that they are ignorant or wrong and bad, won't make people stop being ignorant or wrong and bad. It has to come from their own self-awareness, self-introspection, self-discipline and self-control.

For many people, being direct and straightforward might be seen as bad attitude or weakness for social interaction in the society. Some people are always being friendly, polite and nice in front of some other people, but they can't hold their tongues to complain and criticize about other people behind their backs. Of course that's their freedom of thoughts, actions and speech. But, if we want to purify and silent our minds, we try to stay away from this type of mind habit of hypocrisy and back-biting as much as possible.

We purify our minds until there's no ill-will or ill-thinking about anyone. There's nothing to complain about or criticize anyone whether in front or behind their backs. When we criticize about others, it's not because others are bad and wrong, or when we compliment others, it's not because others are good and right, but it's our mind being impure and project impurities of good and bad qualities onto everyone and everything that our minds perceive through the senses, under the influence of personal likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements based on what our egoistic minds believe what things are.

Quieting the mind.

Om shanti

Truth?

Most of the time, the truth is not something agreeable or pleasant to the minds that are not free from attachment and identification towards certain conditioned thinking and beliefs influenced by ignorance and egoism. Most people perceive their own reality under the influence of conditional thinking and beliefs, they don't see the truth as it is. Those who are not free from ignorance and egoism might have heard about the truth from others, but they might not like the truth, or don't agree with the truth realized by others. Because they haven't realized the truth through their own realization. They perceive everything based on their own thinking and beliefs and they live in their own personal reality. And people shouldn't believe in the truth realized by others, even if it's coming from Buddha or any saints and sages. Everyone has to realize the truth by themselves.

People want or expect the truth to be something that they like and want, that is agreeable to their own personal worldly thinking and beliefs. Everyone who attached to different thinking and beliefs would perceive their own personal reality differently from one another. Everyone has their own perception of reality that is being different from one another and there's nothing wrong with that. But the universal truth is still the one same truth whether people like and agree with it, or not, whether people think and believe it's the truth, or not. As the truth is not a belief, or intellectual analysis. It's the way of how things are, as they are. But most people don't want things to be what they are, but they want things to be the way that how they like and want it to be, or the way that they think it should be.

Democracy?

Democracy is neither something good nor bad. It depends on the states of the minds of the majority of the population of the nations in the world.

If the majority of the population are free from ignorance and egoism, they will have clear understanding about life existence, and can make the appropriate decisions and choices for the welfare and well-being of the people, the nation and the world, without being influenced by any conditioned thinking and beliefs, self-interests or selfish desires, then the world will be heading towards prosperity, peace and harmony under the system of democracy.

If the majority of the population are influenced by ignorance and egoism, they don't have clear understanding about life existence, and can't make the appropriate decisions and choices for the welfare and well-being of the people, the nation and the world, as they are under the influence of conditioned thinking and beliefs, self-interests or selfish desires, and they are easily being manipulated by other people who want to be in power and who also have their own selfish interests and greedy desires, then the situation of the world will be heading towards deeper ignorance, unrest and problematic.

It's a fact that there are not many people are free from ignorance and egoism, and there are too many people are influenced by ignorance and egoism in the present time. Even when many people think that they are good and righteous people based on what they believe is good and right, and some people think that they are somehow better and smarter human beings than many others, it's not necessarily that what they think and believe, and what they want, is the best for upkeeping the welfare and well-being of the people of the nations in the world, if they are not free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, identification, desires, craving and aversion.

Everyone has to somehow get along with what democracy brings to the world whether they agree or disagree with the good and bad decisions, right and wrong choices made by the majority of the population. They have to respect the decisions and choices made by the majority of the population even though they can't accept or agree with these choices.

If people are influenced by ignorance and egoism, they will attach strongly onto their specific thinking and beliefs, and over-powering by self-interests and desires of craving and aversion influenced by their likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements based on what they believe what things are, and they are easily being influenced and manipulated by other people, they will fall into the game of manipulation of those who want to be in power. Those who want to be in power will give the people whatever they like and want, which are not necessarily good for their welfare or well-being, but then these people will be supporting those who will give them what they want, to be in power to be the leaders of the nations in the world.

Just like the children will be happy and satisfy if we give them sweets whenever they request for sweets, and they will say that we are good people and are nice to them. And the children will do things for us whenever they want us to give them sweets. But, that will ruin the children's well-being in long term. But people who are influenced by ignorance and egoism don't care about the welfare of others.

For example, if majority of the people like and want drugs, those who want to be in power will give them drugs, it doesn't matter when by doing so, they know that it will ruin the welfare and well-being of the people and the nation in long term. They are only interested in using the power given to them to gratify their own selfish desires while they still have the power. They don't care if the people or the nation and the world will fall apart afterwards. They let the drugs numb and dull the people's minds. When people's minds are numbed and dulled, and don't have the clarity of mind to think properly, it will be good for those who want to be in power, as they will continue to get the support and liking from the majority of these people by giving them what they like and want, and there will be less people stand against them because majority of the people's minds are already numbed and dulled and clouded by the effects of the drugs, as well as being addicted to drugs. When people are addicted to drugs, they will do anything for the people who will give them drugs. And those who get in power can do whatever they want to do with the power being given by these majority people who support them to be in power through the system of democracy. This is how the world comes to destruction because of the democracy system is being supported and influenced by the mass of the world population being over-powered by ignorance and egoism, while being manipulated by a group of selfish and greedy people.

Democracy – power to the people and the power of the people. But, are the majority of the people all wise and selfless, or are they being over-powered by ignorance and egoism?

Om shanti.

Hating haters hating us?

To hope for peace and harmony in the world, ourselves have to be free from hatred without expecting others not to hate us. If others want to hate, that's their freedom.

How can we expect the world be free from hatred and have peace and harmony in the world, when we are hating haters hating us?

There are people who enjoy hating others and don't want to have peace and harmony in the world, and they intentionally provoke hatred among everyone for attaining something that they want under the influence of their selfish intentions and desires. Sometimes, we are not aware of ourselves are being manipulated by some people's selfish intentions to attain their selfish desires.

As yoga practitioners, we don't share or promote any hate speech or influences, it doesn't matter if it's coming from certain people who think they are good and they want to do the right thing. It's because we are not any different from others whom we think they are bad and wrong, if we hate others for being bad and wrong. When we don't show anger and hatred towards people and things that we think are bad and wrong, it doesn't mean that we agree with them or support them. We don't have to agree with or support them, but we don't have to hate them. Why hurting and harming ourselves through generating anger and hatred in our minds for others' bad and wrong doings?

Om shanti.

Worldly identifications with names and forms

There are many things that we like to do in life and there are things that we don't want to do. There are different duties and responsibilities come along with our many different worldly identifications with different names and forms. Depending on the limited conditions, we can be anything or anyone that we want to be, and perform as many actions as possible under different worldly identifications, but all these different identifications with different names and forms, and what we do and don't do in life through the body and mind, are not who we are.

When one realizes the truth of selflessness, one will be free from separateness, loneliness, offensiveness, defensiveness, aggressiveness, pride, arrogance, hurts, guilt, anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, violence, ill-will, ill-thinking, fear, worry, painful sorrow and all sorts of restlessness or impurities. As long as our minds are not free from ignorance and egoism and impurities, all our actions will also be influenced and determined by egoistic attachment, identification, desire, judgment and intention, and we will always be disturbed by the fruit of actions.

When one is free from ignorance and egoism, one will be able to either perform or abandon all kinds of worldly actions, duties and responsibilities, without being determined by all actions (both actions and inactions) and the fruit of actions.

Be free.

What is strength and power for the ego, is being weak in yoga practice...

The ego wants to get what it wants. It won't satisfied or happy unless it gets what it wants. It would be disappointed and unhappy if it doesn't get what it wants, or if it gets something that it doesn't want.

The ego feels strong and powerful when it gets what it wants.

But, this is indeed being weak in our yoga practice.

The mind is being over-powered by the ego and give in to the egoistic desires of craving and aversion.

Yoga enthusiasts with the strong egoism may feel satisfied and happy when their desires of craving and aversion are being gratified, through getting what they like and not getting what they don't like, and attaining physical strength and flexibility through the regular yoga asana practice, but then it's indeed a form of weakness as well as obstacle on the path of yoga towards the realization of selflessness and unconditional peace.

Yoga practitioners can be performing actions very seriously and determinedly towards achieving something, but all these actions and effort can be free from egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, and expectation. The mind is peaceful as it is regardless of what is the outcome of the actions and effort. There's neither satisfaction nor dissatisfaction, allowing the fruit of action being what it is. And all are impermanent.

Om shanti.

Want to teach yoga?

Teaching yoga is not about trying to convince other people to believe in the teachings of yoga, or to persuade other people to like yoga and practice yoga, or recruiting many people to be our yoga students and joining our yoga classes, or to set as an example for others to imitate us, or to build a yoga empire. The students shouldn’t follow or imitate the teacher, or blind-believe in the teachings of yoga or what the teacher taught them. It’s guiding the students to be free from egoism, and allowing them to be free from attachment and identification towards any thinking and beliefs including the teachings of yoga, but to investigate into the truth of everything, to attain self-realization.

 

Everyone may or may not need some guidance, but it’s up to everyone’s free will to change their own thinking and behavior by developing self-control and self-discipline over their own thinking, actions and speech, and attain self-realization be free from ignorance, and realize unconditional love and peace, and stopped hurting themselves and others. The teacher doesn’t and can’t control or change the students, but can only give them guidance and encouragement. The teacher and the student will meet at the right time and the right place naturally when the time has come, without the influence of egoistic selfish desires.

There’s nothing wrong when people think that when they feel unhappy or angry, feel hurt and disappointed, it’s nothing to do with their own ignorance and egoism, but instead, it’s everyone and everything out there that are bad and wrong that give them unhappiness and suffering. There’s nothing wrong when people believe in God or disbelieve in God. It is everyone’s freedom of thought, actions and speech. But when people start to have strong attachment and identification towards what they think and believe, there arise separateness, discrimination, prejudice, hatred, violence, fear and unrest in their minds towards others who are different from them. Some people even enjoy being angry and violent. They won’t feel good unless they get angry and violent.

If people don’t like to practice yoga about letting go of the ego, attachment and identification, no one can force them. The teachings of yoga teach about everyone purifying their own thinking, actions and speech, but respecting others' freedom of thinking, actions and speech, for what they want to do with themselves, their lives, their bodies and minds. Everyone takes the responsibility for the consequences of their own actions and inactions, for what they believe and disbelieve, for what they want and don’t want. No one can control or purify other’s mind. It is up to each one’s effort and free will to control and purify one’s mind. There's no condemn in Yoga towards anyone who doesn’t like the teachings of yoga, or who doesn’t want to practice yoga as it is, or who misunderstands about yoga, or who criticizes yoga. Anyone can take up any yoga practice and practice anyway that they like, or do whatever they like with yoga, or they can stop practicing yoga for any reasons. There’s no condemn, or sin, or punishment.

Those who practice yoga, they don’t condemn nor criticize. Vice versa, those who condemn and criticize, they don’t practice yoga. We share yoga out of compassion, not out of egoism thinking that “Yoga is good for everyone. Everyone should practice yoga, and practice properly in a particular way, or else they are insulting the sacredness and purity of yoga.” One type of medicine may cure a person’s illness but may not necessarily has the same effect on another with the same illness, or would it cure some other form of illnesses. People react differently towards the same medicine and have different tolerance towards certain side-effects of that medicine which appear differently on different people. Some people may be a good friend for many others, but may not be a good partner or good parent. 

 

There are people dislike and disagree with the teaching and practice of yoga. That is their freedom. We can’t expect or force everyone to like yoga and practice yoga as it is. There are people who never heard about the teachings of yoga and don’t do any yoga practice in a particular name and form, but they are selfless, compassionate and peaceful beings. And if yoga is something sacred and pure, how can it be insulted or contaminated by anything at all?

Some people kept modifying the traditional yoga practices into many different new styles and versions to suit the preferences of what people like and don't like, what they want and don't want. Though there's nothing wrong with that in terms of business marketing strategy and customer service and value, but then the yoga teachers are not really teaching yoga, and the students are not really practicing yoga. Instead it is empowering the egoism, attachment, identification, worldly thinking, ideas and habits, and empowering the desires of craving and aversion of the egoistic mind. 

 

When we practice yoga, we stop giving the egoistic mind what it likes and wants. No doubt that sharing yoga is about sharing love and happiness. Yoga teachers are there to guide the yoga students on how to attain unconditional love and happiness by letting go of the egoistic desires of craving and aversion. It's not about giving them what they like and want, or don't give them what they don't like and don't want, to gratified their desires of craving and aversion, to make them feel loved and happy. They feel loved and happy is because they are getting something that they like and want, and/or are not getting anything that they don't like and don't want. It doesn't help them to be free from the desires of craving and aversion, to realize unconditional love and happiness. When they are not getting what they like and want, and are getting something that they don't like and don't want, they will feel dissatisfied, disappointed, angry, resent, unhappy or miserable. This is moving away from what yoga is about.

Though there is a very significant teaching of yoga about seeing God in all and everything, that God exists in all and everything, but one doesn’t need to believe in God or spirituality to practice the teachings of yoga. For those who don’t believe in God, this teaching can be taught as seeing the one same universal consciousness of all and everything, which is the truth of impermanence and selflessness, that there’s no ‘I’ or individual existence exists in everything or in all the impermanent changes. For those who don’t believe in God or the one same universal consciousness, this teaching can be taught as seeing the element of teacher in all and everything to teach us something for realizing higher understanding about worldly life existence, and be grateful and thankful for all kinds of good and bad experiences. Those who truly implement this teaching in everyday life wouldn’t be disturbed or determined by all the pleasant and unpleasant experiences, and wouldn’t generate anger or hatred towards anyone or anything, but they would respect the law of impermanence in all the different qualities of names and forms, and respect all the different types of thinking, beliefs and behaviors that exist in the worldly community as they are. This teaching leads us to peace and harmony in ourselves and not generating violence, anger and hatred in ourselves and into the world. But if our minds are over-powered by strong egoism and have pride and arrogance about ourselves and our thinking and belief, we would find this practice impossible or very difficult, unless we are ready to let go of our ego, pride and arrogance.

Peacelessness and disharmony manifest and exist in our minds are deriving from the strong egoism, pride and arrogance, attachment and identification, desire of craving and aversion, greed and discontentment, fear and worry, and all kinds of impurities empowered by ignorance or corrupted thinking and belief in the mind. One also generates unrest and disharmony into the surrounding environment when one isn’t peaceful and harmony.

 

If every being is free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, naturally the society will be free from separateness, discrimination, prejudice, hatred, violence, fear and unrest. If we want peace in the world, we must have peace in ourselves. Having peace and harmony in oneself is the only effective way to help the world to be in peace and harmony among all the different qualities and diversities. By being violent, angry and hating others and happenings that we don’t like and disagree with, and provoke anger and hatred in other people to also be angry and hate those whom we think they are bad and wrong, it wouldn’t help the world to be peaceful and harmony as how we would like it to be, but instead, we contribute so much unrest and disharmony into the world, it doesn’t matter how good and right we think we are.

When we know what is yoga, we will know that teaching yoga has very little to do with qualification and certification coming from attending 'internationally recognized' yoga teachers training courses. Yoga teachers training courses are for people to learn to become their own teacher. When one realizes the teacher within oneself, one will know that everything and everyone are teachers to teach everyone something. One will be free from discrimination and hatred towards anyone and anything, and will respect everyone and everything as they are. And naturally, one can also guide other people to become their own teachers out of self-realized unconditional love and peace, without the need of any certifications or acknowledgement from anyone or any 'internationally recognized' organizations.

It doesn’t matter whether we know the names of the yoga poses in English or Sanskrit, or not, or what are the benefits of the yoga exercises, or what particular type of yoga that we practice, because yoga practice is not about gaining the benefits from the yoga exercises at all, and by knowing the names of the yoga poses and performing what particular type of yoga have nothing to do with the realization of unconditional love and peace. It’s about letting go of attachment, identification, expectation, craving and aversion towards all our actions and the fruit of actions, or towards the yoga practice and the result of the yoga practice.

Yoga is about realizing compassion and selflessness through the practice of dispassion and renunciation towards worldly objects, values and ideas, discrimination of what is real and unreal, eliminating the ego and quieting one's restless modification of the mind, and be free from all kinds of attachments, identifications, desires of craving and aversion, and impurities. And all these practices have nothing to do with the impermanent condition and ability of the physical body to perform the yoga poses, or how many years we have been doing yoga exercises, or how much yoga exercises we had done, or how many yoga poses we can perform and whether we can perform the yoga poses in perfect alignment, or not. It’s also nothing to do with all the physical health and fitness benefits that come along as side-effects from the yoga practice. All these names and forms cannot guarantee or determine whether we know about yoga or not, whether we are practicing yoga or not, whether we can teach yoga or not, and whether we are free from ignorance and egoism, and be liberated from suffering, or not.

Many people including many yoga enthusiasts don’t like to hear about the practice of dispassion and renunciation. They give themselves many reasons to justify themselves that they don’t need to be dispassionate, instead they promote passionate way of thinking and living. They said follow all our desires and live passionately. There’s nothing wrong with having desires and being passionate towards worldly life existence, self-image, ideas, ambitions and social activities, and everyone has the freedom to choose what they want to do with their life existence, but then it isn’t what yoga practice is about.

Dispassion towards worldly objects, ideas and activities helps to render the mind calm and quiet to be able to perform self-inquiry to know the truth of 'I', or what the mind thinks and believes as 'who I am'. Passion invigorates strong attachment and identification towards worldly life existence, the function and ability of the body and mind, and passionate desires of craving and aversion. Instead of quieting the mind, annihilating the worldly ideas, and eliminating the ego, it is stimulating the mind, strengthening the worldly ideas and empowering the ego. Passion hinders the mind to see the truth of things as they are. But if people enjoy being passionate and don’t mind being restless constantly swaying between satisfaction and dissatisfaction, that’s their freedom.

Dispassion doesn’t mean that we have no love or feelings. It is respecting and loving the world and everyone as they are, without selfish desires or expectations, discrimination of likes and dislikes/agreements and disagreements, without attachment, identification, craving and aversion, where the world and everyone are not necessarily the way that 'I' would like it to be, or the way that the mind thinks and believes how it should be.

Passion is loving the world and everyone with selfish desires and expectations, discrimination of likes and dislikes/agreements and disagreements, attachment, identification, craving and aversion. It’s 'I' love my world to be the way that 'I' would like it to be, or the way that the mind thinks and believes how it should be.

When one is free from ignorance and egoism, then there’s no difference between passion and dispassion. One can live and perform actions passionately in the world, but is undisturbed and undetermined by one’s actions and the fruit of actions.

The realization of selflessness will allow us to be undisturbed or undetermined by whatever the mind perceives through the senses, and remain equanimous and be at peace unconditionally. When one has realized unconditional love and peace, one won’t be intentionally generating thoughts, actions and speech that will hurt oneself and others under any circumstances, which is compassion. And the realization of unconditional love and peace has nothing to do with the knowledge about anatomy and physiology, or the physical condition and ability and alignment to do the yoga poses.

Everyone can practice yoga and share the wisdom of yoga and its practice with anybody, when they are free from ignorance and egoism and have realized unconditional love and peace through their own persist and sincere practice. They don’t need a piece of commercialized paper to allow them to share love and peace with others. Those who haven’t realized unconditional love and peace in themselves, they can’t share love and peace with others even if they have been attending many yoga courses and possess many pieces of 'internationally recognized' certifications. Those who think and believe that they need to attend professional yoga courses and acquire a few pieces of paper to accumulate credits to allow them to share love and peace with other people, then they don’t really know what is yoga, where their minds are still being influenced very much by the worldly egoistic objects, values and ideas, and being determined by the qualities of names and forms.

May all be happy, be peaceful, be free.

Om shanti.

Want to practice yoga? (3)

The basics of yoga practice :-

1.) Leave our personal thinking and beliefs only to ourselves. Put away all the conditioned personal thinking and beliefs when dealing with other people in the world and learn to be open-minded and respect all others for being different from us, or having different thinking and beliefs from ours.

2.) If we are fussy people about something or many things, throw these fussiness away whether instantly or gradually.

3.) If we are highly sensitive towards certain sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations or thoughts, then try to practice tolerance and forbearance towards all the names and forms that will annoy or irritate us or our minds. Certain physical allergic reactions are biological, where we need to avoid coming in contact with certain things that we are allergic to, or there might be some drugs or medicine that can counter those allergic reactions, but quite many physical reactions are a form of manifestation deriving from the corrupted or ill-thinking minds. Clean out all the rubbish in our minds can eliminate many types of sensitivities/allergies where drugs or medicines also can't cure.

We may or may not know that ourselves are being difficult occasionally or frequently. We learn to recognize them and throw those difficult habits and behaviors away, and stopped being a difficult person for ourselves and others. We learn to be aware of ourselves for being difficult, and we might intentionally or unintentionally generate inconveniences and difficulties to other people who come in contact with us directly or indirectly. Without judgment or expectation, we do our best to change ourselves to be less difficult.

We also learn how to deal with other people who are having difficult personality and behavior that might intentionally or unintentionally generate inconveniences and difficulties to other people who come in contact with them directly or indirectly, with compassion. These difficult people are suffering from their own difficulties as well. We learn how to tolerate all the difficult people and difficult situations, without judgment or expectation, without being disturbed or determined by all these difficult experiences, without losing our patience and tolerance, and learn how to adjust ourselves to accommodate the difficult people and situations, while remain equanimous and be at peace.

May all be happy practicing yoga.

Om shanti.

Want to practice yoga? (2)

All kinds of different yoga practices serve the purpose of influencing and purifying the mind preparing the mind for self-inquiry, or contemplation upon the truth of "Who am I?"

To practice yoga is not necessarily that we have to be doing some yoga asana exercises. Yoga asana practice is one type of the many yoga practices. Some people just do Japa and chanting alone. The practice of Japa and chanting generates harmonious vibrations to serve the purpose of influencing and purifying the mind. Some people just perform selfless service to eliminate egoism and attachment. Some just practice living in the present moment as they are. Some spend most of their time on contemplation. Some focus on observing their thoughts and have self-control over their actions and speech at all time. Same as all the other practices. Some people combine a few practices. Some practice all of the practices. But in the end, all the practices are related to one another when being practiced with non-attachment, non-identification, dispassion, right discrimination, desireless and free from craving and aversion. Ultimately is to free the mind from impurities to see the truth of names and forms as it is, and be free from suffering that derived from ignorance.

Yoga asana and pranayama practice is using the physical body and the breath as tools to influence our mind, to balance the mind, to purify the mind, to calm the mind, and eventually allowing the mind to be able to perceive the truth of things as they are under a pure and calm mind, and be free from egoism and ignorance, going beyond the body and mind, to transcend suffering and be at peace.

Yoga asana practice is very different from the commercialized yoga fitness exercise classes. It’s beyond the physical fitness training. It isn’t about training the body to be able to perform complex exercises or challenging the physical body to go beyond its limitation to become super fit, flexible and strong. We don’t have to be physically fit, strong and flexible to perform the yoga asana practice. Naturally, it enhances people's health and fitness level as one of the by-products when it's being practiced regularly. There's nothing wrong when people use the yoga asana exercises as a form of fitness training. Just that enhanced physical health and fitness level have nothing to do with the realization of unconditional love and peace. One can be very healthy and fit physically, but the mind can be not free from egoism, ignorance, impurities and suffering.

There are yoga centres that teach traditional yogic and meditation practices combine with the practice of dispassion, right discrimination, six fold virtues and the yearning for liberation that would gradually lead to the annihilation of egoism and ignorance. But most of the yoga classes we come across everywhere in the world are only about yoga asana and pranayama practice, and many are about using yoga asana practice as a form of fitness training to achieve fitness results, which isn't a bad or wrong thing.

By doing some yoga asana and pranayama exercises regularly without the practice of dispassion, right discrimination, six fold virtues and the yearning for liberation, will bring some physical and mental benefits to the practitioners, but it doesn't lead to the annihilation of egoism and ignorance, or be free from unhappiness and suffering. And thus, although people might have been practicing yoga and pranayama practice regularly, but if they still have strong attachment and identification with the worldly existence of the body and mind and are over-powered by the desires of craving and aversion, and have attachment towards their action and inaction and the fruit of action, then they would still be disturbed and determined by all the perceptions of name and form and have no peace, as the mind is in a state of restlessness being disturbed by ceaseless impurities arising and passing away in the mind due to the constant reactions coming from the ego towards all the perceptions of name and form generating craving and aversion towards what it likes and dislikes, agrees and disagrees with.

It's not about how much good health, good feelings, physical strength and flexibility that we gain from practicing yoga, but whether there are less impurities and restlessness in the mind. There are less anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, dissatisfaction, disappointment, pride, arrogance, ill-will, feelings of hurt, fear and worry. There are more peace and harmony. In the end, there's only unconditional love and peace, be free from egoism, ignorance, desires and suffering.

Traditionally, yoga asana practice is about holding a few different basic postures in stillness and at ease for as long as we are comfortable at. It’s knowing and respecting the limitation of this physical body without generating attachment, identification, craving and aversion towards its impermanent condition and ability. The skill, stamina, strength and flexibility will gradually develop as we practice regularly. In the beginning, when we first put our bodies and minds in certain positions that they aren’t familiar with, there will be certain degrees of discomfort or struggle and we need to exert great effort to perform the yoga asana practice. We need to endure the discomforts and be patient and persevere in our practice until one day the practice becomes steady and we can hold each position effortlessly for a prolong period of time.

There are many different variations of yoga poses that sprung from six basic positions. Yoga asana practice combines with the practice of pranayama serves the purpose of influencing the mind in different ways without using any external influences such like drugs or from another being, but using our own physical body and the breath as the tools. The purpose is mainly to balance and calm the mind so that the mind isn’t being overly elevated or depressed, while purifying the energy centres and channels, and unblocking any blockages, releasing physical, emotional and mental blockages. Instead of exerting energy in strengthening worldly ideas, desires and identifications, yoga practice is channeling the energy for realization of the truth, rendering the mind calm and pure to perceive the truth as it is.

The six basic positions are:-
1.) Inversions like headstand, shoulderstand and plough.
2.) Forward bends like sitting forward bend and standing forward bend.
3.) Backward bends like fish pose, cobra pose, locust pose and bow pose.
4.) Twists like sitting twist, standing twist and lying twist.
5.) Balancing positions like crow pose, peacock pose and tree pose.
6.) Side bends like standing side bend and sitting side bend.

May all be happy, be peaceful, be free.

Om shanti.

Want to practice yoga?

The world is changing at its own speed and cause. There are human minds evolving towards higher and purer consciousness of thinking and living, and there are many more human minds evolving towards deeper ignorance, and moving further away from purer consciousness of thinking and living.

Almost all and everything is being manipulated into something that is not what it really is, by our own mind perception of names and forms functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, influenced by certain impurities and the conditioned thinking and beliefs in the mind.

That includes Yoga and Buddhism's teachings and practices and their purpose.

We have the great opportunity to come in contact with the teachings of yoga and practicing yoga whether internally or externally, or both. Many people are interested to learn and practice yoga under different intentions and motivations. Meanwhile many people are interested to teach yoga for many different reasons. It should be a very good thing. But somehow, something is not quite right as well, even though there's nothing incorrect about all the different perceptions, understanding, thoughts and ideas, and all the impermanent changes and evolution in all these perceptions, understanding, thoughts and ideas. But the process of sharing all the different perceptions, understanding, thoughts and ideas coming from what the minds think what they know, has been creating more confusions or misunderstanding towards all and everything.

Everyone think they know something that they think they know. There are lots of things that we don't know, but our existence is merely based on what we (the thinking mind) perceive through the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and the thinking faculty, influenced by what the mind thinks and believes what things are, and influencing us to think and behave and interact with the world in a certain way. Even the higher intellectual minds that are creative and innovative can be functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism also, and believing in something that is not necessarily the truth of what things are.

Knowing and accumulating lots of knowledge through studies and scientific researches about this and that also doesn't guarantee that one is or will be free form ignorance and have peace.

The existence of yoga, its teachings and practices are neither good nor bad. Pure minds don't need yoga. Pure beings with pure minds don't need to practice yoga. Yoga exists for impure beings with impure minds. But impure intentions coming from impure minds have somehow been manipulating yoga into different ideas and concepts. Even yoga enthusiasts with high intellectual minds might also be influenced by ignorance, and have been manipulating yoga into something what it is not. But, there's nothing wrong in that either. The world is evolving in such way.

Nowadays, it's not so much about attaining absolute purity and enlightenment, but merely trying to uphold right thinking, right understanding, and right effort, to allow everyone to have certain degrees of peace and harmony within oneself while living in the midst of many corrupted minds, impure thinking and ideas.

The basic practice of yoga is about allowing all the knowledge that we think we know about all and everything to be there as they are, but without attachment onto all these knowledge to be identifying as who we are, nor allowing them to interfere with the process of seeing the truth of things as they are. It's about freeing the mind from perceiving, analyzing, judging and understanding everything based on what the mind thinks it knows and believes what things are.

Want to practice yoga? It's not just about learning and doing some yoga poses and getting some health and fitness benefits. But, through learning and performing the yoga asana practice, we learn to observe the perceived reality in the present moment now without attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, or expectation, and seeing the truth of things as they are.

 

Are you ready to let go of what you think you know and what you believe in?

Om shanti.