The essence of silence

Passionate worldly egoistic minds that attached strongly onto the impermanent and selfless function of the body and the modification of the mind and identified strongly with all the impermanent qualities of names and forms of conditions, experiences, actions and the fruit of actions, and all kinds of connections/relationships as 'I' or 'This is who I am', who attached strongly onto worldly social and cultural thinking and belief to live life, act and react or behave, will not be able to understand or appreciate silence, where they can't live without talking, chatting, socializing, communicating, engaging and interacting with some other human beings or some other forms of living being, where the observation of solitude, seclusion and silence is being perceived/recognized as a form of 'meaningless and negative way of life' or a form of 'abnormal, inappropriate, wrong, mad, selfish and unhealthy way of behavior'.

Due to deep rooted ignorance and egoism, many minds including yoga practitioners and yoga teachers, would think and feel that it's terribly bad and wrong for them or anyone to be observing solitude, seclusion and silence, without coming in contact, talking, chatting, socializing, communicating, engaging or interacting with any other people/beings.

The worldly passionate egoistic minds would feel 'offended' or 'disturbed' by those who are observing silence, where the minds are rendered silent, who don't engage in social conversation/interaction/activity with them, who don't response to their 'sociable friendliness' in the way that they expect how all human beings should be responding or behaving. And that's their freedom of thinking and expression. Autonomously and naturally, most people spend most of their life time and energy into 'making connection of family ties, friendships and relationships' and 'maintaining the connection of family ties, friendships and relationships'.

Yoga practitioners, especially those who identify themselves as 'yoga teachers', who really want to practice and realize yoga of selflessness/oneness/non-separateness, can contemplate or perform self-inquiry upon the essence of silence with this question.

"What do you do or say, or how do you behave or react, if an enlightened Buddha or 'what/who you think is your Satguru' is here in this space with you?"

Do you astounded by their presence by shouting and crying and praying to Buddha or Satguru desiring to be blessed, or be touched/hugged, or be helped, or be sympathized, or be healed, or be loved, or be understood/accepted/acknowledged?

Do you want to be engaging in a social conversation talking about yourself and what's happening in your life and in the world, and also expect Buddha or Satguru to chit-chat with you, to say something to you or talking about themselves and all the good and bad, right and wrong that are existing in the world?

Do you want Buddha or Satguru to be acknowledged about how many and which type of 'Internationally recognized yoga teacher certification' that you have, or how much and what kind of selfless service, charity and contribution that you have done, and looking forward to be praised and recognized by them, and then can't wait to tell all your family and friends that you have been praised and recognized by Buddha or Satguru?

Do you hope or expect Buddha or Satguru will be removing all your ignorance and impurities, and liberating you and everyone that you love from painful sorrow or suffering, and grant you with long life, comfortable living, good health, success, wealth/prosperity, all the helps that you ever need, or all desires come true?

Do you try to socialize and befriend with Buddha or Satguru and planning future ongoing get-together, outings, interactions and activities with them?

Do you have many complaints/unhappiness/frustration/suffering that you need to complain to Buddha or Satguru, or bitch to them about those whom you dislike and disagree with, whom you think they have been hurting you, whom you think they have done something terribly wrong to you and/or others, whom you think they are unloving, uncaring, unnice and unkind to you and/or others, whom you think they are bad people or terrible beings?

Do you think you need to say many nice things to praise and glorify about them, and do something special to please them to make them happy and satisfied, or you shouldn't say or do anything that would be offensive, hurtful or disrespectful to them?

Do you think they are there judging you ceaselessly that you need to be good enough to gain their love, acceptance and acknowledgement, as you think and believe that you need to be loved, accepted and acknowledged by them or by certain people/beings?

Do you think Buddha or Satguru will be condemning/punishing you if you are not free from ignorance, or if you think you are not a 'perfectly good' human being according to certain worldly social/cultural/spiritual/religious/ecological/environmental values and practice, or you can't do handstand and headstand or Trikonasana and Paschimottanasana in perfect alignment, or you don't know what are the name of the yoga poses and their benefits, or you don't know much about the organs, nerves, muscles and bones in the body?

Do you feel disappointed if Buddha or Satguru doesn't turn out to be the way that you expect them to be, or the way that you think and believe how they should be?

Do you think Buddha or Satguru would be offended, or be disturbed, or be upset, or be confused, if you don't make any verbal speech/sound or make any body gesture to show respect to them, if your eyes are closed, if you are not looking at them or anything, if you don't say/express anything, if you have nothing to say/express, if you don't say "Hello! Nice to see you! How are you? Are you okay?", if you don't go towards them and give them a hug or a kiss on their face, if you have nothing to admire or condemn, if you have nothing to complain about, if you have no desire of anything, as your mind is silent, void of ignorance, egoism, impurities, identification, duality, separateness, dissatisfaction, depression, desire, disturb, painful sorrow, fear, worry, hurts, or suffering?

The minds that are free from ignorance and egoism are void of all these worldly egoistic thinking, practice, values, action and reaction. The ones who are being conditioned by all these worldly egoistic thinking, practice, values, action and reaction is the ego, derived from ignorance and powered by egoism. To eliminate the ego and egoism, to realize selflessness/non-separateness, the mind must be free from being conditioned by all those worldly egoistic thinking, practice, values, action and reaction, which is possible through the observation of solitude, seclusion and silence.

Be free.

Why self-righteousness is not yoga practice?

Some yoga enthusiasts are not free from self-righteousness where they think and believe that self-righteousness is a good and upright quality that compliment their yoga practice.

Due to deep rooted ignorance and egoism, there are minds that think and believe that they are good and righteous people and seeing themselves are somehow better human beings than some others whom they perceive as bad and wrongful human beings, and for the sake of humanity, they should stand up for righteousness and condemn those who think and behave in the way that is against what they think and believe is good and rightful way of thinking and behavior, that is bad and wrong, based on their understanding and expectation towards how people or human beings should or shouldn't behave.

None can 'tell' or 'teach' another being/person/mind/community about "This is right and that is wrong." as there's neither right nor wrong, but just different minds judging everything differently based on their own particular thinking, belief, values, practice and preferences, and to behave, act and react in certain way. Siddhartha Gautama Buddha never said or taught about "This is right and that is wrong." even though there's the Eight Fold Path observations for the mind to purify and silent itself to allow the mind to inquire the truth of everything, to see things as they are, beyond the limited/conditioned judgment under the influence of different egoistic worldly thinking and beliefs.

It has to come from the mind itself to inquire into the truth of self-righteousness, where it doesn't exist in selflessness, namelessness, formlessness, attributelessness.

Just as the ideas of patriotism, loyalty, family ties, friendship, relationship, connection, society, community, country, nationality, pride/shame, deserving/undeserving, meaningfulness/meaninglessness, or positiveness/negativeness, are all part of the play of the ego and egoism derived from ignorance. The mind only knows what it knows and what it thinks and believes about what it knows. The mind cannot comprehend what it doesn't know, what it doesn't think, what is beyond all kinds of knowledge that the mind could learn and remember. Just as the ego (the idea/perception of I) cannot comprehend 'selflessness' or 'I-lessness'. And hence, the yoga practice is all about annihilating the ego and egoism to allow the mind to realize selflessness and see things as they are, transcending all the worldly egoistic thinking and beliefs.

Democracy - People's power?

Most people want and support democracy, or even fight and sacrifice their lives for democracy, where 'people' could have 'the power' to choose or elect a leader or a government to lead them.

Democracy is neither good nor bad.

If majority of the people are unselfish and wise, being free from ignorance and egoism, then probably they might elect a leader or a government that will benefit all and everyone, unselfishly, that would promote more peace and harmony in the world.

If majority of the people are selfish and under the influence of ignorance and egoism, then most probably they would elect a leader or a government that doesn't really work to benefit all and everyone, but has certain agenda that only benefits certain group of people in favorable to their own liking, that would generate more prejudice, discrimination, unrest and disharmony in the world.

The world or the society doesn't really need any leader or government. The world or the society would most probably run more smoothly without any particular leader or government that complies to certain idea or vision of a particular world or society to be in certain way. Even an unselfish and intelligent leader of the world also cannot go against the law of nature and the ignorance of the majority of human beings.

What can truly benefit the world or the society is that human beings need to free their own minds from ignorance and egoism, while allowing the world being what it is in accordance to the law of nature, and the society will be fine as it is, even if it's not perfectly the way that most human beings would desire it to be in many different ways respectively. And that's most probably unlikely to be happening. As even many highly educated, knowledgeable and intelligent human beings are also being ignorant towards their own minds are functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, and would have the great intention/aspiration/ambition/passion utilizing their education, knowledge and intelligence to create a world or a society of certain way according to their own preferences complying to their own certain thinking, belief, values and practice.

Being conditioned by egoistic thinking pattern unwittingly

The minds can still be functioning under the influence of conditional egoistic thinking pattern to behave, judge, expect, aspire, act and react, unwittingly, even if the minds have 'good' intention to be supporting and upholding 'good' values/practice/behavior, and believe in performing 'good' actions and standing up for protecting 'goodness and righteousness' in the world.

Yoga practice is to free the mind from conditional egoistic thinking pattern that most minds are unaware of, while thinking and believing that those thinking and beliefs are the important values of humanity.

Yoga practitioners can perform self-introspection to find out whether one's mind is being conditioned by egoistic thinking pattern unwittingly, by asking oneself these questions, as most minds are unaware of itself is being conditioned to think and believe in such way, to behave, judge, expect, aspire, act and react.

- Is there a strong sense of belonging towards a particular name and form of family/relationship/friendship/social group/community/country/nationality/ethnicity/culture/religion/school/spirituality/profession/politic/any form of practice and etc, and one would do one's best to uphold and protect that particular name and form that the mind thinks and believes, 'This is where I belong, that I am being proud of being part of it, and I have the duty and responsibility to do my best to be protecting it from being hurt, damaged or destroyed by what I think and believe as negativity, badness and wrongfulness', or I don't know where I belong and it's important for me to be in searching for something/somewhere that I belonged to, that can give me the sense of belonging?

- Does the mind thinks and believes that patriotism and loyalty towards something/somewhere that one belonged to, is a great value or quality that everyone should be cherished and be proud of, where 'Betrayal of any kind is something terribly wrong and unforgivable, and those who commit any form of betrayal must be condemned and punished accordingly'?

- Does the mind thinks and believes that there are certain things/objects/lives that it likes and agrees with, that it understands as something important and appreciates very much shouldn't be subject to 'impermanent changes' and don't deserve 'extinction'?

Not that patriotism and loyalty or upholding something that one's mind thinks and believes is 'good and righteous' is something bad or wrong, but it promotes 'separateness' and 'discrimination' where it doesn't allow the mind to go beyond the conditional thinking pattern that hinders the mind from realizing selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, namelessness, formlessness and attributelessness, which is the ultimate goal of yoga. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with showing great appreciation towards something that the mind perceives as important, lovable and agreeable, but the intense attachment towards something that the mind thinks and believes is important, lovable and agreeable, and not allowing everything being what they are, where everything will change and disappear, is what hinders the mind from realizing 'yoga', or be free from ignorance and suffering.

Patriotism/Loyalty and the sense of belonging or the need to find where one belonged to don't exist in selflessness. Due to ignorance and egoism, many yoga practitioners are still being conditioned by such egoistic thinking pattern, where they think and believe that they belong to certain 'yoga lineage', or 'yoga family', or 'yoga community'. Similarly, the minds that are free from ignorance and egoism can be appreciating all the lovable and agreeable names and forms, but without attachment and are able to respect the law of nature (impermanence and selflessness) as it is, and be able to let them go, in peace.

Patriotism/loyalty and self-righteousness is not yoga practice. Yoga practitioners must work cautiously and diligently to free the mind from such egoistic thinking/belief/values/practice in order to free the mind from ignorance and egoism, to realize selflessness/oneness/non-separateness/namelessness/formlessness/attributelessness, that leads the mind towards right discrimination towards the truth of everything and non-discrimination towards all the different qualities of names and forms that co-existing in this space, which all are subject to impermanence and selflessness.

Letting go?

If there's no attachment, there's needless of letting go.

If there's attachment towards either something pleasant or unpleasant, enjoyable or painful, then know that everything is impermanent.

If one knows what is non-attachment towards what is pleasant and enjoyable, then one can fully appreciate and enjoy what is pleasant and enjoyable, but will be able to let it go in peace when impermanence strikes. If there's attachment and one doesn't know how to let go, then there will be dissatisfaction, disappointment, unhappiness, hurts or painful sorrow upon losing what one likes very much, that is pleasant and enjoyable. And there's nothing wrong with that, just that one needs to know that even those dissatisfaction, disappointment, unhappiness, hurts or painful sorrow are also impermanent.

When one is holding onto something unpleasant or painful, and one cannot withstand the unpleasantness or pain, one can choose to let go of it, by putting it down without hurting it, without regret of letting go something that one likes very much, but it's unpleasant and painful. A lot of time, most people would just react spontaneously if they dislike the unpleasantness or pain, or couldn't forbear the unpleasantness or pain, and would be throwing away immediately whatever that appears to be unpleasant or painful to oneself, and cause damages to that either wittingly or unwittingly.

There's nothing wrong if one decided to continuously holding onto something that one likes very much even though it's unpleasant or painful, but then, one must also accept the consequences of that and endure all the unpleasantness or pain due to unwilling to let go something that appears to be unpleasant or painful to oneself, without expectation towards this unpleasantness or pain will change or disappear, but allowing the changes to be what they are, not necessarily the way that one would like it to be.

It's everyone's freedom for whether they want to let go, and be free, or they don't want to let go, and accept the consequences of one's action and decision of not letting go.

Be free.