This teaching is for those who wish to attain liberation from suffering deriving from ignorance, egoism and impurities. Those who want to spend their entire life time into attaining a good and comfortable life and be contented with the attainment of a good and comfortable life don't need this teaching.
For those who are not free yet, 'friends' or 'association with worldly minded people' can be one of the great obstacles on the path of yoga and meditation, as the impure minds will easily be influenced or determined by someone or something, unwittingly. For those who are free, they can mix freely into the society without being influenced or determined by anyone or anything.
One should not be overly confident with oneself being uninfluenced or undetermined by others, thinking that one is capable to juggle between worldly busy social life activities and one's yoga practice, as the very advanced practitioners also would not guarantee that their minds can be completely free to mix into the society without being influenced at all by anything.
Living in the society with all the modern higher technologies, communications, conveniences, comforts and pleasurable enjoyments of the senses, there will be 'friends' who will advice you not to take yoga and meditation practice seriously and encourage you to develop all sorts of passionate desires and worldly ambitions, and taking your time and energy away from yoga and meditation practice of silencing the mind to be actively getting involve with social mingles, interactions and activities, pursuing worldly ambitions and the gratification of passionate desires.
There are also many other 'spirituality/yoga enthusiasts' nowadays might also give you many 'other alternative' suggestions other than the traditional practice of self-discipline or self-control, of renunciation and restraining the mind activities/modification.
Many people, including those who think they love yoga and meditation practice, aren't aware of the downfall effect of egoistic attachment and identification towards a worldly life existence of putting importance and values into nurturing a 'good and meaningful' worldly life of worldly ambitions, passionate desires, social mingles, interactions and activities. To them, all these worldly passions, ideas, objects, values and activities are the normal, the right, the positive and meaningful way of life. That's their freedom of thinking and belief.
For people who realize/know the root cause of all the worldly problems and suffering of mankind is nothing but the mind is functioning under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, and so, they renounce such 'normal', 'good' and 'meaningful' worldly life of names and forms by retracting from nurturing worldly ambitions, passionate desires, social mingles, interactions and activities, and divert the time, effort, energy and focus into silencing/annihilating the mind to attain liberation from the mind perception of such a fleeting embodied life existence. But, such a 'noble' way of life is being perceived by the worldly minded people as 'abnormal', 'weird', 'wrong', 'negative', or 'meaningless'.
And hence, the worldly minded people, including many yoga and meditation enthusiasts would strongly disagree with and discourage about the practice of renunciation from the worldly life of family, friends, relatives, relationships and society/community, of social mingles, interactions and activities, or the practice of seclusion and solitude and silencing/annihilating the mind.
For the worldly minded people who attached onto and identified with the worldly life of mind perception of names and forms as 'who they are', it's so wrong or crazy not to interact with or talk to other human beings. They can't live for a day, or a few hours of not coming in contact with, not interacting with, or not talking to another human being. They will become crazy. They suffer from endless boredom and loneliness. They try to get involve in many physical or mental or verbal activities and interactions with other(s) to escape boredom and loneliness. They say this is 'love', and so, they have to be actively connected or interacting with 'someone' or 'something'. Or else they will feel lack of love or absence of love in themselves, or in their life, or in the society/the world. If they go to attend 'silent meditation retreat', they would be so confused and disturbed by how come everyone keeps their head down, not looking at each other, not touching each other, not responding to other people's 'friendliness', and not talking, working, playing, interacting or communicating with one another.
While some people also say, "Yoga is love." and thus they share 'love' with many people 'unlimitedly', by getting into uncommitted lustful 'love/intimate' relationship with many people at the same time. "We love, comfort and support each other. We don't get into committed couple relationship. We don't want to possess each other. We don't want to be selfish. Love is for all. We should be free to love/be intimate with as many people as we like." so they said. That is not Yoga. It's mere passion and lust. You will see married/unmarried 'yoga teachers' getting into love/intimate relationship with the yoga student or many different yoga students. There's no self-restraint or self-control at all. And they justify that it's yoga of love and sharing.
That's why in the serious spiritual constitutions, people are not allowed to be touching/hugging one another, because most minds are not pure and are not free from lustful desire, craving and clinging. There will be many 'corrupted misconducts' arising here and there. But, the worldly minded people can't understand this at all.
This observation of 'non-touching' or 'non-hugging' is strongly disagreed by the worldly minded 'good and loving' people, including some 'yoga enthusiasts' who believe in all human beings should somehow physically contacting with some other human beings or animals, constantly touching and hugging one another, to be giving and receiving 'love', or else people 'could be sick' or 'even die' from the absence of 'love' due to lack of touching or hugging from other human beings, so they think and believe, and so they become, being conditioned by that thinking. They might feel much better or even be 'cured' from certain sickness after being touched or hugged by some others. That's their freedom of thinking and belief. But, it's not the truth. Why? Those who are not conditioned by this thinking, won't be sick or die from the absence of touching or hugging from some other beings. And no matter 'touching' or 'hugging', or not, everyone will have to face death eventually, alone, by oneself.
Buddha and many saints and sages renounced worldly life and relationships for many years, they didn't die of isolation and solitude, but they attained enlightenment, or certain degrees of freedom from suffering. They walked the middle path, neither too tight nor too loose. It meant to be neither torturing the body nor pampering the body while performing practice or Sadhana of purifying and restraining the mind activities/thought-current/modification. One must know how to eat well and eat enough, and not taking extreme fasting or fussy about food variety or overly eating. One must know how to rest or sleep well, not too much or too little. One must know how to perform the Sadhana in balance, not too much or too little. One must know how to balance between resting and training the body and the mind. One must know how to conserve energy for performing Sadhana. One must know how to turn the outgoing mind inward by refraining from over-stimulation and restlessness of chasing after the objects of the senses. And thus the path of renunciation from worldly ambitions, passionate desires, social mingles, interactions and activities is very crucial to free the mind from over-stimulation and restlessness and to conserve energy for Sadhana.
Whether people want to be conditioned by particular thinking and belief, or not, it's their freedom of choice. While yoga and meditation practice is to free the mind from being conditioned by any thinking or belief. As the truth is not a thinking or belief, it's just what things are, or seeing things as they are.
Upon the realization of unconditional love, all beings are love itself. This is pure love or unconditional love, not the conditional passionate lustful loving affection under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities. One will never be lack of love. One doesn't need to be receiving or sharing 'love' from someone, or something, or somewhere, to feel 'love', to have 'love', to accumulate 'love'.
If the 'love' can be lacking, absent, increasing or decreasing, appearing or disappearing, that is conditional passionate 'love'.
Many people, including yoga enthusiasts, say, "I have abundance of love. If you don't have love or you are unloved, I'll give or share with you some of my love, and you will have love and be loved."
Real yoga practitioners or yoga teachers say, "You are love itself. You just need to realize this. You don't need love from me or anyone or God, to make you feel loved or have love."
The greatest effort and true contribution one can give to the world for the sake of humanity, is working diligently to attain self-realization through transcending the mind and its modification of a worldly life existence by limiting or restraining the mind from association with worldly objects, ideas, thinking, belief, values and activities, or human beings who attached strongly onto all these worldly names and forms.
Be very patient, without any expectation to realize anything. After some time being isolated from all these worldly names and forms, the mind starts to realize the 'unrealistic' of the worldly life existence of all those names and forms, thinking, belief and behavior. Though be vigilant. There might be some practitioners who haven't realize anything even though they practice renunciation for some time, they would become more passionate and lustful than they were before, after a few years being 'refrained' from worldly ideas, objects, activities, interactions and beings. This is because they are lack of the foundation of Yama, Niyama, Viveka, Vairagya, Shatsampat and Mumukshutva.
Before the mind attains final dissolution/disintegration, it's utmost important to reduce or minimize or refrain from coming in contact with worldly minded passionate people or 'good friends' who would pull you away from the path of silencing the mind, but encourage you to put importance into stimulating your mind into endless restlessness, passion, anger, lust, desires, dissatisfaction, disappointment, pride and heroism, by nurturing endless worldly ambitions and passionate desires, and engaging in social mingles, interactions and activities.
A good and comfortable life condition also doesn't guarantee that the mind is free from ignorance and the by-products of ignorance, egoism and impurities, and all kinds of painful sorrow, fear, or suffering. Advanced or developed countries endowed with higher education opportunity and higher technologies also doesn't guarantee the people's mind or thinking are free from selfishness, fear, discrimination, racism, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, bias, violence, crime, corruption, exploitation, or be free from conflicts or wars. Even among the so called spiritual or morality emphasized constitutions also are not free from such impurities due to the great influence of ignorance and egoism.
Contemplate on this, if one really wants more peace and harmony in the world -
Those who are able to 'let go' the world, can do more work for the world efficiently, out of compassion, in peace, without attachment, identification, craving/aversion, judgment or expectation. Those who passionately 'love' the world very much and couldn't let go the world, as they think and believe that it is selfish and wrong to 'not care' for the world that is not the way that they like it to be, and out of frustration, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurt, fear, anger and hatred towards what is happening in the world that they don't like, don't want and don't agree with, that they think is bad or wrong, they can't really help the world to be better or more peaceful, as they generate so much tension/impurities in themselves and into the environment, even though they try to perform 'good and righteous' actions that they think and strongly believe that are 'benefiting' or 'helping' the world.
What's the point of provoking other people's anger and hatred through social media and some other platforms so that all those mentally and emotionally disturbed, angry and hating people can support our cause of "Trying to bring 'goodness, peace and harmony' into the world?" Or, perhaps, bringing 'goodness, peace and harmony' into the world is not our intention/goal at all, but merely to get enough supporters to gratify our desire of achieving a 'perfect' world that we prefer, the way that we like it to be, even if it's achieved by creating more disturbs, anger and hatred in the society towards the things that we don't like and don't want, in order to get the supports that we need to make the world to be the way that we like it to be and not to be the way that we don't want it to be.
Just like being disagreeable and angry with the parents who discipline/punish their children out of disagreement and anger, and we want to discipline/punish these parents for disciplining/punishing their children out of being disagreeable and angry with their children?
The sun, the moon, all the planets, the water, the earth, the air/wind, the space don't interfere with one another, although unintentionally/unwittingly, they are influencing or inter-related to one another. If there is individual-will of egoism in them to 'interfere' or 'control' or 'over-power' each other, the universe can't be here at all. "I want the universe to be like this." "No. I want the universe to be like that." "NO. I want the universe to be the way that I think it should be!"
It's everyone's freedom whether to practice yoga and meditation, or not, and what they want to do with their life existence of the body and mind.
For those who are not free yet, 'friends' or 'association with worldly minded people' can be one of the great obstacles on the path of yoga and meditation, as the impure minds will easily be influenced or determined by someone or something, unwittingly. For those who are free, they can mix freely into the society without being influenced or determined by anyone or anything.
One should not be overly confident with oneself being uninfluenced or undetermined by others, thinking that one is capable to juggle between worldly busy social life activities and one's yoga practice, as the very advanced practitioners also would not guarantee that their minds can be completely free to mix into the society without being influenced at all by anything.
Living in the society with all the modern higher technologies, communications, conveniences, comforts and pleasurable enjoyments of the senses, there will be 'friends' who will advice you not to take yoga and meditation practice seriously and encourage you to develop all sorts of passionate desires and worldly ambitions, and taking your time and energy away from yoga and meditation practice of silencing the mind to be actively getting involve with social mingles, interactions and activities, pursuing worldly ambitions and the gratification of passionate desires.
There are also many other 'spirituality/yoga enthusiasts' nowadays might also give you many 'other alternative' suggestions other than the traditional practice of self-discipline or self-control, of renunciation and restraining the mind activities/modification.
Many people, including those who think they love yoga and meditation practice, aren't aware of the downfall effect of egoistic attachment and identification towards a worldly life existence of putting importance and values into nurturing a 'good and meaningful' worldly life of worldly ambitions, passionate desires, social mingles, interactions and activities. To them, all these worldly passions, ideas, objects, values and activities are the normal, the right, the positive and meaningful way of life. That's their freedom of thinking and belief.
For people who realize/know the root cause of all the worldly problems and suffering of mankind is nothing but the mind is functioning under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, and so, they renounce such 'normal', 'good' and 'meaningful' worldly life of names and forms by retracting from nurturing worldly ambitions, passionate desires, social mingles, interactions and activities, and divert the time, effort, energy and focus into silencing/annihilating the mind to attain liberation from the mind perception of such a fleeting embodied life existence. But, such a 'noble' way of life is being perceived by the worldly minded people as 'abnormal', 'weird', 'wrong', 'negative', or 'meaningless'.
And hence, the worldly minded people, including many yoga and meditation enthusiasts would strongly disagree with and discourage about the practice of renunciation from the worldly life of family, friends, relatives, relationships and society/community, of social mingles, interactions and activities, or the practice of seclusion and solitude and silencing/annihilating the mind.
For the worldly minded people who attached onto and identified with the worldly life of mind perception of names and forms as 'who they are', it's so wrong or crazy not to interact with or talk to other human beings. They can't live for a day, or a few hours of not coming in contact with, not interacting with, or not talking to another human being. They will become crazy. They suffer from endless boredom and loneliness. They try to get involve in many physical or mental or verbal activities and interactions with other(s) to escape boredom and loneliness. They say this is 'love', and so, they have to be actively connected or interacting with 'someone' or 'something'. Or else they will feel lack of love or absence of love in themselves, or in their life, or in the society/the world. If they go to attend 'silent meditation retreat', they would be so confused and disturbed by how come everyone keeps their head down, not looking at each other, not touching each other, not responding to other people's 'friendliness', and not talking, working, playing, interacting or communicating with one another.
While some people also say, "Yoga is love." and thus they share 'love' with many people 'unlimitedly', by getting into uncommitted lustful 'love/intimate' relationship with many people at the same time. "We love, comfort and support each other. We don't get into committed couple relationship. We don't want to possess each other. We don't want to be selfish. Love is for all. We should be free to love/be intimate with as many people as we like." so they said. That is not Yoga. It's mere passion and lust. You will see married/unmarried 'yoga teachers' getting into love/intimate relationship with the yoga student or many different yoga students. There's no self-restraint or self-control at all. And they justify that it's yoga of love and sharing.
That's why in the serious spiritual constitutions, people are not allowed to be touching/hugging one another, because most minds are not pure and are not free from lustful desire, craving and clinging. There will be many 'corrupted misconducts' arising here and there. But, the worldly minded people can't understand this at all.
This observation of 'non-touching' or 'non-hugging' is strongly disagreed by the worldly minded 'good and loving' people, including some 'yoga enthusiasts' who believe in all human beings should somehow physically contacting with some other human beings or animals, constantly touching and hugging one another, to be giving and receiving 'love', or else people 'could be sick' or 'even die' from the absence of 'love' due to lack of touching or hugging from other human beings, so they think and believe, and so they become, being conditioned by that thinking. They might feel much better or even be 'cured' from certain sickness after being touched or hugged by some others. That's their freedom of thinking and belief. But, it's not the truth. Why? Those who are not conditioned by this thinking, won't be sick or die from the absence of touching or hugging from some other beings. And no matter 'touching' or 'hugging', or not, everyone will have to face death eventually, alone, by oneself.
Buddha and many saints and sages renounced worldly life and relationships for many years, they didn't die of isolation and solitude, but they attained enlightenment, or certain degrees of freedom from suffering. They walked the middle path, neither too tight nor too loose. It meant to be neither torturing the body nor pampering the body while performing practice or Sadhana of purifying and restraining the mind activities/thought-current/modification. One must know how to eat well and eat enough, and not taking extreme fasting or fussy about food variety or overly eating. One must know how to rest or sleep well, not too much or too little. One must know how to perform the Sadhana in balance, not too much or too little. One must know how to balance between resting and training the body and the mind. One must know how to conserve energy for performing Sadhana. One must know how to turn the outgoing mind inward by refraining from over-stimulation and restlessness of chasing after the objects of the senses. And thus the path of renunciation from worldly ambitions, passionate desires, social mingles, interactions and activities is very crucial to free the mind from over-stimulation and restlessness and to conserve energy for Sadhana.
Whether people want to be conditioned by particular thinking and belief, or not, it's their freedom of choice. While yoga and meditation practice is to free the mind from being conditioned by any thinking or belief. As the truth is not a thinking or belief, it's just what things are, or seeing things as they are.
Upon the realization of unconditional love, all beings are love itself. This is pure love or unconditional love, not the conditional passionate lustful loving affection under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities. One will never be lack of love. One doesn't need to be receiving or sharing 'love' from someone, or something, or somewhere, to feel 'love', to have 'love', to accumulate 'love'.
If the 'love' can be lacking, absent, increasing or decreasing, appearing or disappearing, that is conditional passionate 'love'.
Many people, including yoga enthusiasts, say, "I have abundance of love. If you don't have love or you are unloved, I'll give or share with you some of my love, and you will have love and be loved."
Real yoga practitioners or yoga teachers say, "You are love itself. You just need to realize this. You don't need love from me or anyone or God, to make you feel loved or have love."
The greatest effort and true contribution one can give to the world for the sake of humanity, is working diligently to attain self-realization through transcending the mind and its modification of a worldly life existence by limiting or restraining the mind from association with worldly objects, ideas, thinking, belief, values and activities, or human beings who attached strongly onto all these worldly names and forms.
Be very patient, without any expectation to realize anything. After some time being isolated from all these worldly names and forms, the mind starts to realize the 'unrealistic' of the worldly life existence of all those names and forms, thinking, belief and behavior. Though be vigilant. There might be some practitioners who haven't realize anything even though they practice renunciation for some time, they would become more passionate and lustful than they were before, after a few years being 'refrained' from worldly ideas, objects, activities, interactions and beings. This is because they are lack of the foundation of Yama, Niyama, Viveka, Vairagya, Shatsampat and Mumukshutva.
Before the mind attains final dissolution/disintegration, it's utmost important to reduce or minimize or refrain from coming in contact with worldly minded passionate people or 'good friends' who would pull you away from the path of silencing the mind, but encourage you to put importance into stimulating your mind into endless restlessness, passion, anger, lust, desires, dissatisfaction, disappointment, pride and heroism, by nurturing endless worldly ambitions and passionate desires, and engaging in social mingles, interactions and activities.
A good and comfortable life condition also doesn't guarantee that the mind is free from ignorance and the by-products of ignorance, egoism and impurities, and all kinds of painful sorrow, fear, or suffering. Advanced or developed countries endowed with higher education opportunity and higher technologies also doesn't guarantee the people's mind or thinking are free from selfishness, fear, discrimination, racism, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy, bias, violence, crime, corruption, exploitation, or be free from conflicts or wars. Even among the so called spiritual or morality emphasized constitutions also are not free from such impurities due to the great influence of ignorance and egoism.
Contemplate on this, if one really wants more peace and harmony in the world -
Those who are able to 'let go' the world, can do more work for the world efficiently, out of compassion, in peace, without attachment, identification, craving/aversion, judgment or expectation. Those who passionately 'love' the world very much and couldn't let go the world, as they think and believe that it is selfish and wrong to 'not care' for the world that is not the way that they like it to be, and out of frustration, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurt, fear, anger and hatred towards what is happening in the world that they don't like, don't want and don't agree with, that they think is bad or wrong, they can't really help the world to be better or more peaceful, as they generate so much tension/impurities in themselves and into the environment, even though they try to perform 'good and righteous' actions that they think and strongly believe that are 'benefiting' or 'helping' the world.
What's the point of provoking other people's anger and hatred through social media and some other platforms so that all those mentally and emotionally disturbed, angry and hating people can support our cause of "Trying to bring 'goodness, peace and harmony' into the world?" Or, perhaps, bringing 'goodness, peace and harmony' into the world is not our intention/goal at all, but merely to get enough supporters to gratify our desire of achieving a 'perfect' world that we prefer, the way that we like it to be, even if it's achieved by creating more disturbs, anger and hatred in the society towards the things that we don't like and don't want, in order to get the supports that we need to make the world to be the way that we like it to be and not to be the way that we don't want it to be.
Just like being disagreeable and angry with the parents who discipline/punish their children out of disagreement and anger, and we want to discipline/punish these parents for disciplining/punishing their children out of being disagreeable and angry with their children?
The sun, the moon, all the planets, the water, the earth, the air/wind, the space don't interfere with one another, although unintentionally/unwittingly, they are influencing or inter-related to one another. If there is individual-will of egoism in them to 'interfere' or 'control' or 'over-power' each other, the universe can't be here at all. "I want the universe to be like this." "No. I want the universe to be like that." "NO. I want the universe to be the way that I think it should be!"
It's everyone's freedom whether to practice yoga and meditation, or not, and what they want to do with their life existence of the body and mind.
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