Observe all the names and forms as they are

The worldly restless impure egoistic minds keep looking for stimulation of inputs and outputs.

It doesn't like to observe names and forms as they are.

It projects quality and duality onto all the perceived names and forms based on its likes and dislikes influencing by its thinking and belief.

Through remembering what it perceived or what it knows, it judges, compares and expects.

It clings, craves, rejects, agrees, disagrees, wants, doesn't want, creates and destroys.

It has many forms of desires and great ambitions.

There's aspiration and intention to perform actions and inactions motivated by its desires and ambitions.

It has 'passionate' aspiration and intention to 'share' what it knows and has, and 'share' what others know and have.

There's nothing wrong with that, just that the mind is not free.

Even the mind that projects 'good' and 'kind' quality onto itself, desires to be 'good and kind' and thinking 'positively and optimistically', and performing good and kind actions to benefit the world, is not necessarily be free from selfishness. The one who thinks "I am not selfish. I want to be unselfish." and recognizing other people are being selfish, is not necessarily be free from selfishness.

"I want the world to be good and I want to make the world good, so that I and my loved ones can have a good world to live in and have a good life."

It's everyone's freedom for what they want to think and believe, and what they want to do with their life existence.

Silent the restless mind, abandon 'positive thinking' and 'optimism', be free from desires, and even the desire to be free from suffering, if one truly wishes to realize yoga.

Positive thinking and optimism is just an counteract for 'negative thinking' and 'hopelessness'. It's not the truth nor the end of suffering.

If 'God' exists, 'God' doesn't have intention to make anyone or anything to be good or bad, positive or negative, happy or unhappy.

There's neither positive nor negative, neither good nor bad, neither happiness nor unhappiness, neither elation nor depression.

Dharma doesn't need to be shared, if one knows Dharma.

Peace and love doesn't need to be shared, if one knows peace and love.

Be free from aspiration and intention, if one truly wants to realize yoga.

Don't be ambitious.

'Sharing', 'connecting', 'giving' and 'receiving' are reflections of separateness.

'Sharing', 'connecting', 'giving' and 'receiving' don't exist in oneness.

Who is sharing with whom? Who is connecting with whom? Who is giving? Who is receiving?

Be free.

The ego exists in all and everyone and anyone

The ego, or more precisely, the idea of 'I', exists in all and everyone and anyone, whether educated or non-educated, intelligent or non-intelligent, knowledgeable or non-knowledgeable, religious or non-religious, wealthy or poor, men or women, young or old, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, yoga practitioners and non-yoga practitioners, yoga teachers and non-yoga teachers, and so on.

If the ego can easily be eradicated, then the entire world would be in peace and harmony.

Though it's not easy, fear not. Keep practicing. Root out the ego and egoism, patiently and diligently.

The entire worldly cultural, educational, religious, spiritual, social and political system is all about empowering the ego and egoism. It is normal and the right thing to do for human beings to empower self-identification, self-image and self-achievement. It would be wrong and strange if one abandons self-identification, self-image and self-achievement.

Even in the world of yoga which is 'supposed' to be all about starving the ego and eradicating egoism and separateness, but now mostly is all about empowering the ego and fueling egoism and separateness.
"I am a yogi."
"I am a healer."
"I am an experienced/good yoga practitioner."
"I am an experienced/good yoga teacher."
"I am X or Y brand yogi."
"I am a Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/Hindu/Atheist/... yogi."
"I am a certified and qualified yoga teacher."
"I am a yoga teacher affiliated with such and such yoga alliance or yoga association or yoga school."
"I have been practicing and teaching yoga for how many years and have taught in such and such yoga schools/ashrams and have taught how many yoga students."
"These are my yogi family/friends/brothers/sisters/gangs."
And all kinds of 'yoga brands', 'yoga lineage', 'yoga schools', 'yoga festivals', 'yoga retreats', 'yoga courses', 'yoga healing products', 'yoga health food', 'yoga apparels' and 'yoga accessories', and so on.

"Do not associate. Do not build ashrams. Do not hoard disciples. Do not mix. Live alone. Walk alone. Eat alone. Meditate Alone." - Swami Sivananda

Being peaceful and compassionate doesn't mean that the body and mind don't experience unpleasantness

Whether we feel comfortable or uncomfortable being in a yoga pose or in a particular position, or in a situation in life, it has nothing to do with peace and compassion.

Being peaceful and compassionate doesn't mean that the body and mind don't or won't experience or perceive unpleasantness.

One can be peaceful and compassionate as one is, unconditionally, being undetermined or undisturbed by all the impermanent changes of the condition of the body and the state of the mind, and all the perceptions of pleasant and unpleasant sensations, sights, sounds, smells, tastes and thoughts.

If one can only be peaceful and compassionate when one perceives or experiences pleasant names and forms, and doesn't perceive any unpleasant names and forms, but then one won't be peaceful or compassionate when one perceives unpleasant names and forms, then that is just the momentary state of the ignorant egoistic mind being 'peaceful and kind' or 'peaceless and unkind' being conditioned and determined by the qualities of names and forms, it's not the unconditional peace and compassion that one realizes from being free from ignorance and egoism.

The one who is free, will be peaceful and compassionate as one is under any condition or situation, no matter what is the physical condition or the state of the mind, whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.

Be free.

Yoga retreat is not about running away from the reality that we don't like and don't want

Not running away from or denying, but confronting the reality that is not the way that we would like it to be, and being aware of this life existence, the world, the society and the surrounding environment is not necessarily 'all good' or perfectly the way that we would like it to be, or the way that we think it should be, with wisdom and compassion, without aversion or fear towards the reality that we think is 'not all good', or 'imperfect', or 'challenging', is our yoga practice.

Living in the world as we are, being aware of all kinds of uncertainty, insecurity, unrest, cautiousness, defects, or imperfection in all aspects, and knowing how to remain equanimous and be at peace, without fear and worry, without being over-powered or determined by the reality that is not necessarily the way that we would like it to be, is what yoga practice is about.

This isn't about trying to be 'strong'. 'Strength' has a limit, and is conditional. But wisdom and compassion is unconditional and unlimited. Those who know the law of nature, of cause and effect, impermanence and selflessness, they don't need to be strong or be positive.

Joining a yoga retreat is not about running away from the reality that we don't like and don't want, to be in a 'safe and peaceful place' without 'bad people' or 'things that we don't like and don't want', and be surrounded by 'good people' who are like-minded and doing things that make us feel good and happy and meaningful.

People might think that yoga practice or yoga retreat should be conducted in a 'special place' or 'out of the world place', free from any 'bad energy' or 'bad elements', thinking that 'yoga retreat' means moving away from the imperfect world, or running away from everyday life's duties, responsibilities and cares, to have a few days or few weeks of 'intentionally induced perfect form of reality' of 'peacefulness' or 'calmness' or 'problemlessness'. No doubt that being in a desirable 'conditional reality' will give momentary relief or peace, but this doesn't help us to be free from 'fear', 'disturb', 'restlessness', and 'suffering' when we go back to our everyday life living among the society or in the world that is not necessarily the way that we would like it to be, that is not in our control to be the way that we would like it to be.

A real yoga retreat allows us to learn how to live in the world as it is, performing all our actions, duties, and responsibilities without attachment, identification, or expectation, without fear and worry. It's learning about the mind and all its modification, about suffering and the cause of suffering, about how to transcend all kinds of 'suffering', 'restlessness', 'impurities', or 'fear', and how to confront the reality of life existence in this present moment that is not necessarily the way that we would like it to be, or the way that we think it should be, without fear and worry, and have peace wherever we are, unconditionally, being undetermined by all the impermanent changes in the qualities of names and forms.

Yoga, or unconditional peace, being free from ignorance and egoism, is not limited to a particular 'place', or 'space', or 'activity', or 'condition', or 'quality', or 'name and form'.

Being positive and optimistic, denying or ignoring all kinds of 'ignorant and unpleasant behavior and happenings' in the world, in the society, or in the surrounding environment, and persistently thinking and believing that everyone are good, there's no bad people; everything is good, there's nothing bad; life is all good, there's nothing bad; the world is all good, there's nothing bad, and etc, doesn't change the reality that we don't like or don't want to be the way that we would like it to be.

It's like sweeping and hiding all the dust and rubbish under the cupboards and sofas, so that they are not in sight, it doesn't mean that the room is all cleaned. And no matter how many times we sweep the floor, and throw out all the dust and rubbish out of the room, there will always be dust and rubbish accumulating here and there from time to time, unless everyone who enter the room stop bringing in dust and rubbish into the room. This is the same as looking after the mind. We do our best to 'clean up' the mind regularly and persistently, but impurities will still exist from time to time, until the root cause of impurities (ignorance and egoism) is uprooted completely.

When there's no problem, there's no need to anticipate a problem. When there's a problem, confront it, without fear and worry.

Be free.

Words of wisdom are neither good nor bad

Words of wisdom are neither good nor bad. They are just what they are. They have no intention or quality to be useful or useless, to be meaningful or meaningless, or to be enlightening or disturbing.

Words of wisdom can be useful and meaningful and enlightening for those who are aware of ignorance in oneself, but they are useless and meaningless and disturbing for those who are not aware of ignorance in oneself.

All minds that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism are being conditioned or influenced by many different types of egoistic thinking and belief that are being imprinted into the mind since the birth of this life existence coming from family and cultural background, religious background, parenting, schooling, social mixing and interaction, social medias, commercial values, political influence, and all kinds of information sources, to live life, to think and feel, to act and react.

Most of the time, we don't really inquire the truth of everything that were passed down to us from generation to generation, and everything that we come in contact with, and we usually put our 'trust' onto 'reliable' or 'respectable' sources to feed or occupy our minds with many different information and ideas, until we start to doubt about something and then we would question or investigate the truth of it, to find out whether it's true, or not. But that usually won't happen until we got into trouble and suffer for the consequences of our own 'incorrect' or 'ignorant' understanding, thinking, belief, way of living, conduct and behavior.

If people don't question the truth of everything, everyone just live life, think and feel, act and react as how they were being told, or educated, or influenced by the elders, parents, caretakers, friends, society, communities, groups, associations, gangs, politicians, religious authorities, school teachers, philosophers, business people, and so on.

In Yoga and Buddhism, one has to question the truth of everything including all the teachings or scriptures of yoga and Buddhism, of what all the teachers said and taught. The real teachers won't be insulted, or disrespected, or humiliated when the students neither agree nor disagree with what the teachers taught them, but being independent and diligent to perform self-practice and self-inquiry to realize the truth of the teachings through self-effort and self-realization.

It's okay if we don't know many things. It won't do any harm if we don't know everything and we are aware of we are ignorant, or don't know the truth of something. But it would be very harmful to oneself and others, if we blind-believe in and blind-agreeing with and blindly sharing information and ideas that we don't know whether they are true, or not.

So as there are many 'yoga teachers' teach yoga to other people according to what they have learned, studied and heard from the yoga courses and yoga books that they have attended and read, just because the books/scriptures/teaching manuals and their teachers say so. Some people don't mind if the teachings are true, or not, as long as they have some ideas of yoga poses practice sequences with some technical information and interesting spiritual stories to teach in the yoga classes to satisfy the people's enthusiasm and intention of joining the yoga classes, and earn a living. And there's nothing wrong with that, and it's everyone's freedom. One is willingly to present something that one doesn't really know what does it really means, while others are willingly to follow something that they don't know where it would lead them to.

The wise never aspire or intent to make other beings to see what they see, or to know what they know. The teachings are everywhere for everyone to take it (practice and realize), or leave it.

Be free and be happy.

Wisdom vs intelligence and accumulated worldly knowledge

Wisdom reflects peace and freedom from suffering. Meanwhile intelligence and accumulated worldly knowledge in a person doesn't necessarily guarantee that one will be peaceful or free from suffering.

One doesn't need to know 'the knowledge of how to build a house' to have peace and be free from suffering. Knowing 'the knowledge of how to build a house' doesn't guarantee that one will be peaceful and free from suffering. Though one can use 'the knowledge of how to build a house' to benefit oneself and others. Being a doctor with the knowledge of medicine and all kinds of illnesses, and using this knowledge to be doing something useful for one's and others' health condition also doesn't guarantee that one will be peaceful and free from suffering. Being a psychologist with the knowledge of psychology and all kinds of psychological illnesses, and using this knowledge to benefit oneself and others also doesn't guarantee that one will be peaceful and free from suffering.

Intelligence and accumulated worldly knowledge is neither good nor bad and it can be used for something good or bad under different 'intention', and it's uncorrelated with peace and wisdom.

Wisdom is one with peace. They manifest in oneness.

When there's peace, there's wisdom. When there's wisdom, there's peace. And vice versa.

Whenever one finds 'peace' in any particular quality of name and form, or experience, or action and inaction, or the result of action and inaction, or object, or space, or place, or condition, or situation, then very soon this 'peace' will change and disappear.

It's the same as compassion is uncorrelated with 'passionate love' towards the world and the worldly names and forms.

People talk about 'love the world' and 'love for peace in the world'. But without wisdom, this 'love' towards 'love the world' and 'love for peace in the world' is merely a form of passionate attachment and affection (derived from ignorance and egoism) towards worldly names and forms that are impermanent. Out of 'love' towards the world and desiring 'peace that we want' in the world, people 'desire' to make the world to be the way that how we would love it to be, and would 'destroy' any 'obstruction towards having the world to be the way that how we would love it to be' at any cost. The by-products of this kind of 'love' about 'love for the world' and 'love for peace in the world' is restlessness - a mixture of happiness/satisfaction/meaningfulness/peacefulness/victory/strong (when the world and the experience of the worldly names and forms are being the way that how one would love it to be) and unhappiness/dissatisfaction/meaninglessness/peacelessness/failure/vulnerability (when the world and the worldly names and forms are not being the way that how one would love it to be).

Out of 'love' towards what we believe as 'peacefulness', 'kindness', 'good' and 'right', we 'hate' what we believe as 'peacelessness', 'evilness', 'bad' and 'wrong'. 'Hating' what we believe as 'peacelessness', 'evilness', 'bad' and 'wrong' is nothing to do with compassion.

 

Compassion is not about 'accepting', 'allowing' and 'supporting' what we believe as 'peacelessness', 'evilness', 'bad' and 'wrong' either. But, it's freedom from 'the suffering' of 'hatred', 'anger', 'dissatisfaction', 'disappointment', 'craving', 'aversion', 'hurt', 'regret', 'guilt', 'violence', 'ill-will', 'ill-thinking', 'animosity', 'vulnerability', 'offensiveness', 'defensiveness', 'obsessiveness', 'possessiveness', 'fear' and 'worry', being undetermined or undisturbed by what the worldly passionate minds believe as 'peacelessness', 'evilness', 'bad' and 'wrong'.

The wise abandon 'love' towards the world of worldly names and forms that are impermanent, but resting in unconditional peace of wisdom and compassion.

Open-mind that exists along under the presence of compassion and wisdom is void of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Open-mind born out of compassion and wisdom reflects awareness towards ignorant situation and knowing how not to get into unnecessary ignorant situations and the consequence of that, being free from ignorant thinking/action and the consequences of ignorant thinking/action.

 

There are many passionate minds have misunderstanding towards what is open-mindedness, where they would think and believe that open-mindedness is about 'being optimistically trusting the universe will look after my well-being where I should think and believe in everyone that I come in contact with are all pure, good and kind people without any selfish intention and desire, where I shouldn't have any doubtful/distrusting thinking/feeling towards anyone in order to look after myself and my well-being, by myself, because I think that it's 'bad', 'wrong', 'closed-mind', 'unfriendly', 'ill-thinking' and 'being selfish to look after myself by protecting myself from mistreatment/harm', and I don't want to have 'ill-thinking' towards anyone or 'being selfish to look after myself by protecting myself from mistreatment/harm'. I strongly believe that I myself, am a pure, positive, generous, kind and loving being, that I only will be loved by everyone and will be void of any mistreatment or harm, as I love the universe/God and the universe/God loves me', and thus, ignorantly coming in contact and dealing with ignorant beings with impure intention and desire, and getting involve in ignorant situations/events that give rise to mistreatment/harm to oneself. This is actually ignorantly 'encouraging' mistreatment/harm or crimes to be happening.

Keeping the hand away from close contact with fire to avoid getting injured/burnt is not 'bad', 'wrong', 'ill-thinking', or 'being selfish'. By not keeping the hand away from close contact with fire, but deliberately keeping the hand in close contact with fire, thinking that it's 'bad', 'wrong', 'ill-thinking' or 'being selfish' to keep the hand away from fire, and I want to be 'open-mind' where I should believe in the universe or God will protect me from any harm, is ignorance, or mere stupidity.

Being compassionate, friendly and open mind towards all beings doesn't mean that one should be ignorantly and wittingly letting oneself to be taken for granted/advantage by those with selfish intention/desire, or giving the opportunity for others to misbehave and endangering oneself to be mistreated/hurt by the ignorance of others.

Open mind towards all without judgment is more about being opened towards everyone could be kind or unkind, depending on the current state of their minds, without judgment of 'This is a kind person' or 'This is an unkind person'. One doesn't need to trust, or distrust, or mistrust anyone for anything.

This is similar to where the teaching of 'surrendering' in Yoga is also being misunderstood by many passionate minds in the same way. 'Surrendering' in Yoga is about surrendering the ego and egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, performing all our duties and actions without attachment, renouncing the fruit of actions, being dispassionate and desireless. It doesn't mean that one doesn't need to be responsible for one's actions and the consequences of actions, or doesn't need to be responsible to be looking after the well-being of oneself and those under one's care. Such like, driving on the road. One needs to be attentive and stay alert while driving, and be responsible to follow the traffic rules, and watching out for 'reckless drivers' or 'other road users'. 'Surrendering' doesn't mean "Ah, I surrender to God completely. Everything is God's will. Whatever will be, will be. I must not have 'ill-thinking' towards anyone that some of the drivers might be driving recklessly. I shouldn't have 'negative thinking' about there could be 'unexpected objects/animals' might be on the road that I need to watch out for. I don't need to drive carefully with attentiveness or stop at any traffic lights and junctions, and without watching out for the other road users or any unexpected objects/animals on the road, and I will arrive safely at my destination without any problem." That is ignorance, or mere stupidity.

Be free.

When there's doubt whether in the yoga asana practice or in life

When there's doubt whether in the yoga asana practice or in life, especially in relationships, we learn to take responsibility to make decision for ourselves, either we go beyond the doubt and endure whatever difficulty or challenge that we think we are dealing with, and make some adjustments to adapt and accommodate whatever difficulty or discomfort, proceed with what we want to venture, or, if we think we can't go beyond the doubt, we can let go what we would like to do or have, without regret or guilt towards the decision that we made, no matter what is the outcome or consequences of our decision made.

When we attempt to perform certain yoga asana poses that we are not familiar with and there's doubt towards our physical ability or fear of the risk of injury, we learn to take the responsibility to make decision for ourselves, either we go beyond that doubt and proceed with the attempt to perform the yoga poses without tension or fear or struggle or pushing the body beyond its limitation, especially when the body is capable and is ready to do the poses, but the mind has doubt and fear, and it doesn't matter if we still can't do the yoga poses after we have tried our best, or if we think we can't go beyond that doubt, we think and believe that our body is not capable or is not ready to do the poses, we can let go of trying to perform those yoga poses in this practice session. There's no regret afterwards towards the decision that we made for ourselves.

It's really not important whether we can perform all the yoga poses, or not. It's about learning how to deal with fear and doubt while we perform the yoga asana poses. It's okay if we can't go beyond the fear or doubt in this present, but we can try again in the next practice, or the next next practice, it doesn't matter if one day finally we can perform the yoga poses without fear or doubt, or we still can't do them even after many attempts for many years. It's really not important and it has nothing to do with the realization of unconditional love and peace.

It's the same as in life situations, especially in relationships. When there's doubt in a relationship and we are not sure whether we want to continue to be in the relationship, or not, we can either go beyond the doubt and do our best to develop unconditional love, patience, tolerance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation to over-come whatever difficulties that we think we are encountering in a relationship, or if we think we can't go beyond the doubt, if we think we can't have the unconditional love, patience, tolerance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation to continue the relationship that is challenging for one or both parties, we can just let go of the relationship, even though we think we love the person in the relationship with us, as loving someone doesn't mean that we have to be in a relationship with that person, to 'keep' the love, the person and the relationship to be mine and ours.

Sometimes we have to let go a relationship out of love, real love. As loving each other doesn't necessarily mean that two people are suitable to be sharing a life together in a relationship or living together under the same roof.

It's okay if we are aware that we are not as loving or kind as what we would like us to be. We don't have to love anyone, because most of the time, we don't even love ourselves, we only love what we like and what we want. And it's okay if we don't love anyone or ourselves, as long as we are aware of it. It's okay if we realize we don't really love the person in the existing relationship with us. And it would be better to be aware of "I don't love you" than to think or believe that "I love you", but at the same time "I'll do and say things that would hurt you and our relationship, because I don't really love you, but I only love what I like and what I want. And I am unhappy or feel disappointed, angry and hurt when I don't get what I like and what I want in this relationship with you."

There's neither regret nor guilt, once we made a decision and we take the responsibility for the consequences of our decision made.

Some people do not want to make decision for themselves and ask other people to give them advice and make the decision for them, so that, if the consequences of the decision made turn out to be good, everyone will be happy, and if the consequences of the decision made turn out to be bad, they can blame other people for it.

Be free.