Social distancing?

Scientists have already found out that the spread of the virus among human beings is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales, (which obviously including talking,) where people can be infected by breathing in the virus if they are within close proximity of someone who has the virus, or by touching a contaminated surface and then their eyes, nose or mouth. 

If people have high awareness and self-control, and know how to maintain certain length of physical distance from other people, even if they are family and friends but who are not from the same household, on top of wearing face mask properly, frequent hand-washing and without touching their eyes, nose and mouth unwittingly, then it would effectively help to minimize the spread of the virus among human beings. But, very few people in the world will have such high awareness and self-control, and constantly observing such practices wittingly. And hence, the pandemic is still growing and worsening in many countries in the world.

Many people, including some yoga practitioners and teachers might understand the importance of it, but they couldn’t observe the practice of social distancing during the pandemic, which is the most important way to stop the spread of the virus from human to human.

Not limited to, but there are some reasons why people can’t practice social distancing or reluctant to be refraining from any kinds of physical social meet up, gathering, mingling and interaction for a prolonged period of time such as:-

1.) The sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom, as well as anxiety building up towards the pandemic and the long term side-effects of it, whether wittingly or unwittingly, which is natural for most people. 

People who have not enough understanding towards the function and state of the mind would be over-whelmed by the sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom and/or anxiety, and losing their patience, balance and sanity, and behave irrationally after a prolonged period of time being restricted from many familiar physical and social activity and interaction. There's nothing wrong with human beings are sociable, interactive and talkative in nature. Those who have developed certain degrees of self-control and mind discipline, and have adequate understanding towards the function and state of the mind, would have no problem being without any physical and social activity and interaction with other human beings for a prolonged period of time.

2.) People think that social distancing means only limited to maintaining certain length of physical distance from other people, but doesn't need to restrict or limit physical and verbal activity and communication, especially verbal interaction and talking face to face with other people, even if people are wearing a face mask, as most people couldn't help touching their face mask from time to time with their fingers and then touching everywhere, unwittingly.

3.) Many people just can’t live without physically engaging in social/cultural/religious practices, celebrations, ceremonies and events in a group that involves more than one participant. People like to share and be merry or be in grief with other people. There's nothing wrong with that, especially if in a world without the pandemic. People have the freedom for how they want to live their life, with or without the pandemic going on. Although there are new laws being implemented to limit people's action and inaction for the sake of curbing the pandemic.

People can’t live without physically meeting, mingling, interacting, communicating and talking face to face with some other human beings from time to time, especially with their family and friends who live physically apart from one another. People can’t live without hugging and touching or ‘kiss kiss’, especially with their family and friends, to show love and affection. Even some yoga enthusiasts and mental health professionals would actually believe that people will be sick and die if without physical hugging and touching with other human beings for a long time. People can’t just be by themselves or with those within the same household after a certain period of time, but they need to go out and physically mingling with their neighbours, relatives and friends, and family members who are not already living under the same household. There's nothing wrong with all these behaviors. It's very common for most people.

Social distancing isn’t just about maintaining at least two metres distance of physical distancing, on top of frequent hand-washing and wearing face mask like what most people would prefer it to be as simplest as that, because people need to go out to work to maintain livelihood and get daily needs even without engaging in any physical social activity or gathering, but it’s the restriction towards all kinds of physical social/cultural/religious activity, gathering, meet up, interaction, communication, celebration, ceremony and event that gather two or more people to be in a particular space, which cannot avoid some kind of verbal interaction or talking among people, that serves an upmost important role to minimize the spread of the highly contagious virus. Because most people just forget about maintaining physical distance and can't avoid verbal/physical communication/interaction when there are two people or more being together in the same space.

There’s nothing wrong with people being sociable and talkative and carrying out their all-time social/cultural/religious practices even in the midst of pandemic. Life has to go on. For the sake of maintaining certain degrees of sanity, many people need to live life with all kinds of social/cultural/religious activities the way that they are familiar with. Just that this pandemic won’t end anytime soon, but will keep growing under the people's ongoing physical social meet up, gathering, mingling, interaction and talking face to face, even if wearing a face mask during such activities.

Those who don't take any consideration towards the scientific research being accurate, or not, but just blindly deny any scientific research, and those who think that the pandemic doesn't exist, won't help in tackling the pandemic either.

Not just that people's physical and mental health is being threatened by the prolonged pandemic, but people’s lives, movements and livelihoods that depend on the global economy will continue to be restricted and affected, unless the respective vaccine is found and accessible/affordable to everyone.

My life stories - Part 13

My life Stories – Part 13
Stories from my past memories – childhood, family, friends, growing up, poverty, integrity, dreams come true, finding peace and happiness, Buddhism, Yoga, and now…

We were busy organizing our new life in this rented apartment on Penang Island after we moved in on the 2^nd of February. We needed to get the apartment ready to receive Marc’s parents who came to visit us during the 4^th week of February. Two weeks after Marc’s parents left, Malaysia and many other countries declared national and international lockdown due to the pandemic in mid-March. We didn’t get to explore much of the island. At least, I knew the way to the supermarket for grocery shopping every ten days or so during the lockdown. Also, my husband got to swim every day in the condominium’s swimming pool from the day we moved in for about six weeks until the lockdown started. 

One of the main reasons we decided to leave Langkawi and move to Penang Island renting this particular apartment was because it had the 50 metres lap pool and it’s beside a hiking path. Regular swimming and walking is very important for my husband’s over-all well-being. He has some old and new injuries as well as extreme low blood pressure that restricted him from performing yoga asana practice. I myself prefer doing yoga asana practice at home, and hence, the lockdown didn’t cause me much inconvenience and restriction. It was until the RMCO (Recovery Movement Control Order) started in early July, where the swimming pools in many condominiums remained closed due to the strict S.O.P (Standard Operating Procedure), but the public swimming pool started operating again complying with the S.O.P, my husband got to swim regularly again at the Spice Aquatic Centre for a few months until the pandemic second wave hit Penang and many other states in Malaysia in early November, where swimming activities are not allowed, again.

Even so, my husband and I are very glad that we had left Langkawi and moved into this apartment just before the pandemic lockdown, where we can’t travel or run yoga retreats. We really loved Langkawi, and were thinking of living there for as long as possible because of the nature and slow pace of living that we liked very much, but the human related difficulties that we experienced while living and teaching yoga in Langkawi in the last ten years had encouraged me to suggest to my husband that we should go somewhere else.

Similarly, Marc’s parents had made a very sudden decision to change their travelling dates to travel earlier to Australia than their initial plan, to spend a couple of months with their second daughter and grandchildren and then visit us for one week on the way back to Ireland just before the international lockdown began. Or else, they wouldn’t be able to travel anywhere if they had followed their initial travel plan. When they informed us about they had already bought the flight tickets to Langkawi for February 2020, they didn’t know that we had decided to move to Penang, and they didn’t think of we wouldn’t be living in Langkawi anymore one day. Partially it’s our own fault as we didn’t want to inform anyone about our plan to move away from Langkawi until we had found a secured place to live in Penang. And so, we bought them the flight tickets to Penang and paid for their one night accommodation in Langkawi before their connecting flight between Langkawi – Kuala Lumpur – Dublin. That worked out nicely in the end. We didn’t expect pandemic and international lockdown would be happening in March. It was so lucky that they got to see their children and grandchildren before the pandemic, and nobody knows how long this travel restriction will go on.

Many people, including some yoga practitioners and teachers might understand the importance of it, but they couldn’t observe the practice of social distancing during the pandemic, which is the most important way to stop the spread of the virus from human to human. A few reasons why people can’t practice social distancing or avoid any kinds physical social meet up, gathering and interaction for a prolonged period of time such as the sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom, and anxiety building up towards the pandemic and the side-effects of it; people don’t really understand and don’t want social distancing; as well as many people just can’t live without engaging in physical social/cultural/religious practices, celebrations, ceremonies and events in a group more than one person.

People can’t live without physically meeting, mingling, interacting, communicating and talking with some other human beings from time to time, especially with their family and friends who live physically apart from one another. People can’t live without hugging and touching or ‘kiss kiss’, especially with their family and friends.

People, including some yoga enthusiasts and mental health professionals, would actually believe that people will be sick and die if without physical hugging and touching with other human beings. People can’t just be by themselves or with those within the same household after a certain period of time, but they need to go out and physically mingling with their neighbours, relatives and friends, and family members who are not living under the same household.

Social distancing isn’t just about maintaining at least two metres distance of physical distancing, on top of frequent hand-washing and wearing face mask like what most people would prefer it to be, where people need to go out to work to maintain livelihood and get daily needs, but it’s the restriction of all kinds of physical social/cultural/religious activity, gathering, meet up, interaction, communication, celebration, ceremony and event that gather two or more people to be in a particular space, which involves verbal interaction or talking among people, that serves an upmost important role to minimize the spread of the highly contagious virus. Because most people just forget about maintaining physical distance and can’t avoid verbal/physical communication/interaction when there are two people or more being together in the same space.

There’s nothing wrong with people being sociable and talkative and carrying out their all-time social/cultural/religious practices even in the midst of pandemic. Life has to go on. Just that this pandemic won’t end anytime soon, but will keep growing under the ongoing physical social meet up, gathering, mingling, interaction and talking face to face among human beings. People’s lives, movements and livelihoods that depend on the global economy will always be restricted and affected, unless the vaccine is found and accessible/affordable to everyone.

Because the pandemic is still continuing and even worsening throughout Malaysia and in many other countries, we won’t be running yoga retreats anytime soon. We still receive some retreat requests from time to time, but we reject all of them, as we know it’s not suitable to have such activities during the pandemic. And recently, during the second wave lockdown in Malaysia, all kinds of retreat activities are not allowed, which we agree with.

We had been living on Marc’s saving for the last many months, and lately, his writing, editing and proofreading career has started to take off. He got some international writing, editing and proofreading work that brings in some income for our living, even though the amount is not much and isn't enough to cover monthly basic living expenses. Just like many other people who have to work from home, his work depends very much on the internet connectivity. It would be difficult for him if we had stayed in Langkawi, because the internet speed that we had in that house was very slow and we experienced no internet connectivity for a few days from time to time. We also wouldn’t be able to run yoga retreats in Langkawi during the pandemic if we had stayed there. Here in Penang, we can have a high speed internet connection at a lower price than what we had paid in Langkawi.

Just like everything in this world, this apartment is not perfect. It also has some defects. We are not looking for perfection, but appreciating all the good points while accommodating the not so good points. The living condition, the surrounding environment, the natural air flow and the lighting in this apartment are significantly better than the previous house in Langkawi. This is especially important for my husband, as he needs a healthy environment and comfortable space for his writing that requires a lot of concentration and creativity. Proper lighting is a must because he reads a lot throughout the day and night. Our monthly electric bill now is about 70% less than what we had while living in Langkawi.

Even though people’s everyday lives with certain familiar routine and many physical activities or travelling are under restriction at this time being for the sake of flattening the curve of the pandemic, and many people’s livelihood are more or less being affected by it especially if this will go on for a longer period of time, we are grateful with how and where we are.

The pandemic might restrict us from running yoga retreats, but it doesn’t restrict me from performing yoga practice and writing about yoga in my blogs once in a while. There’s a shift in the world of yoga in a good way being benefited from the pandemic lockdown. It’s not so much about appreciating the good things that we already have in life. The pandemic lockdown is creating a great opportunity, time and space to the yoga enthusiasts to develop self-practice, self-reliance, self-discipline and self-inquiry, inquiring the truth of impermanence and selflessness in all the names and forms, and experience the practice of solitude, seclusion and silence, if they want, under the movement restriction. Though not many people would be interested in the practice of solitude, seclusion and silence, as they prefer to continue keeping busy with their social life and activities mentally and emotionally through the social media platforms during the lockdown or the two weeks mandatory self-quarantine.

Some people’s existing livelihood might be affected by the pandemic lockdown and need to find some other way of making a living to support oneself and/or other people under one’s care, and hence, they won’t be thinking of the practice of silence at this time, which is nothing wrong. Just by maintaining equanimous under any condition and situation without being determined by the impermanent changes and challenges in life, while doing one’s best to look after oneself and one’s life is already a great practice. One can also ask for help from some others if needed, without feeling bad about oneself and one’s difficulty, and without expecting sympathetic reaction or treatment from others thinking that other people should provide help to oneself, but allowing voluntary help from others is available, or not.

Not many people are suitable for the practice of solitude, seclusion and silence. Most people need to keep their minds busy engaging in social connection and interaction with their family and friends physically, mentally and emotionally in order to maintain sanity and counter the sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom, to be caring for one another amidst the pandemic. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s better for people to maintain certain degrees of sanity than losing their minds while trying to perform the practice of silence to quiet the restless mind, if they aren’t ready for it, particularly in this time being. Those who don’t have enough understanding towards the teachings and practice of yoga would be disturbed by the sense of guilt, if they think they are not being there physically, mentally and emotionally for other people, especially their close family and friends. People also have fear towards being criticized by other people for trying to practice silence.

Some people have responsibility towards looking after their old parents, or young children, or physical dependent family members, and hence, aren't able to observe the practice of silence, and it's fine. They just need to know how to look after their own well-being, and aren't being frustrated about unable to do something they would like to do while had to be looking after some other people in their lives. That is also part of our yoga practice, if all those worldly responsibilities are being performed selflessly without attachment, identification and expectation towards the action and the fruit of action.

There’s nothing wrong either for those who make use of this time being to go into solitude and seclusion to practice silence even just for a few weeks being completely cut off from all kinds of social connection, communication, interaction and activity physically, mentally and emotionally, if they are ready, being equipped with Viveka, Vairagya, Shatsampat and Mumukshutva. Those who haven’t experience the practice of silence before should start with one week of silence first, and then gradually increase the length of the duration while having a short break in between, to allow the mind gradually gets use to it and realizes the effect of the practice.

Those who weren’t affected financially by the pandemic lockdown and who have developed certain degrees of self-reliance and correct understanding about the teachings and practice of yoga, and who have determination to free the mind from ignorance, restlessness, disturbs and impurities are suitable and ready for the practice of complete silence for a short or prolonged period of time. Those who are suffering from chronic depression and those who are physically, mentally and emotionally dependent on other people in everyday life are not suitable to practice complete silence. Though there’s no harm and it’s beneficial for them or anyone to be practicing some light yoga asana and breathing exercises regularly at home, especially if many outdoor and group activities are not allowed in the midst of the pandemic. 

If the mind still hasn’t developed the basic foundation of non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion and non-expectation, and doesn’t have the basic understanding towards the modification of the mind and the purification process of the mind, even if oneself has been practicing yoga for a long time and is interested to try the practice of silence, then it’s being advised that the practice of silence should only be done under the supervision from some others who had a higher understanding about the modification of the mind and the mind purification process.

Some people might misunderstand that just by staying at home not going out for many days restricting many physical social and leisure activities during the lockdown is not different from the practice of silence. It’s about cutting off all kinds of familiar worldly habits of the mind, including self-pampering with pleasurable enjoyment of the senses, and mental and emotional connections, communications, interactions and activities with other beings, refraining the mind from the habit of going out chasing after the objects of senses to be entertained and stimulated.

The observation of silence is bringing the mind to the present to be focusing within on the internalizing yoga and meditation practice, for quieting the mind and turning the mind inwards for self-introspection, being the witness of the modification of the mind and contemplation towards the truth of names and forms or “I”, while looking after the basic daily needs of maintaining the well-being of the physical body. It’s an intense mind purification process that might generate great discomfort physically, mentally and emotionally. That’s why it’s not suitable for those who are not mentally and emotionally independent. Also, one must be able to take responsibility towards one’s action and the consequences of one’s action. Those who like to blame others for all their unhappiness, pain and discomfort are not suitable for this practice either.

Just by restricting the familiar physical social and leisure activities or not moving the body, but without restricting the mental and emotional craving and longing towards entertainment, stimulation and social connection, communication, interaction and activity, even if being physically isolated by oneself for a prolonged period of time, it won’t work.

While some yoga practitioners might feel that life existence is too precious to be wasting in mind disciplining practice under the threat of the pandemic, and hence, forgoing the yoga practice of disciplining and silencing the mind but indulging in worldly enjoyments of the senses as much as possible. That’s their freedom and there’s nothing wrong.

All is impermanent.

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Freedom, not necessarily what the mind thinks what it is

There are many forms of freedom for different people with different thinking and desire. In yoga, freedom while living in the world of selfless impermanent names and forms is being free from ignorance and egoism, and thus, be free from the consequences of ignorance and egoism, of all kinds of mental and emotional suffering of unhappiness, disturbs, restlessness, fear, worry, disappointment, anger, hatred, hurts, painful sorrow, guilt, shame, resentment, and so on.

Nowadays, many people who think they are mentally and emotionally disturbed and hurt by something hurtful, they feel and believe that they are suffering from mental and emotional hurts and suffering, and they are looking forward to be receiving some kind of 'spiritual healing' treatment from someone 'spiritual' to heal them, to take away their painful hurts and suffering. Meanwhile, there are many different kinds of 'spiritual healing' being 'advertised' in the world claiming to be able to 'heal' people's mental and emotional hurts and suffering, including in the world of yoga. That's their freedom. Getting certain 'healing treatment' or receiving certain 'comforting love and affection' from some other beings might relieve certain degrees of mental and emotional pain, but it doesn't stop the mind to be continuing perceiving/experiencing/feeling 'hurts' and 'suffering' mentally and emotionally whenever people think and believe they are 'experiencing' and 'disturbed by' some kind of 'hurtful' and 'suffering' experiences.

When people come to us to learn and practice yoga, we don't give them 'spiritual healing' treatment. We don't take away or remove what people think and believe is their mental or emotional painful hurts and suffering. We teach and guide everyone to contemplate upon or look into their own minds to know what is going on in their minds, that allows them to see the truth of hurts and suffering, to realize the root cause of hurts and suffering, to realize selflessness and compassion. We don't heal anyone, but it's coming from people themselves willingly to let go all the ignorant perception about everything that will liberate them from any kind of 'so called' mental and emotional 'hurts' and 'suffering'.

If people are not willing to learn about what is going on in their own minds, and reluctant to open their minds, where they insist that all their painful hurts and suffering are caused by somebody and something that is being hurtful and suffering, and feel greatly insulted and offended when being told to 'identify' and 'see' the ignorance and egoism in their own mind, then the teaching and practice is useless to them.

We don't need to 'heal' anyone, and we don't 'heal' anyone. All kinds of 'hurts' and 'suffering' ceased existing or vanished from the mind when the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, upon knowing thyself and knowing the truth of names and forms. 'Hurts' and 'suffering' don't exist upon the realization of the truth, and nobody needs to be 'healed' from 'hurts' and 'suffering', as nobody is being there to perceive or experience 'hurt' and 'suffering' upon the realization of selflessness and compassion. That is real freedom.

Looking after one's physical and mental health amidst pandemic

The pandemic is not just threatening people's physical health and lives, but the prolonged 'meh' condition that everyone around the world has to go through due to the movement restriction in order to curb the virus from spreading has been straining the mental health of many people, even for those who are mentally healthy all the while but their life and livelihood is being affected greatly by the pandemic, not to say, it is hammering hard on those who are already suffering from some kind of mental health issue.

Some people who suffer from some kind of mental health issue, such as depression, can be benefiting very much from performing certain physical activity, especially lap swimming, where the contact with water combining with the repetitive movements and rhythmic breathing that gives a very special effect which can effectively elevate and stabilize the state of the mind without the need of drug medication, but unfortunately, many physical activities are not allowed due to the movement restriction, including lap swimming, even when it's an individual activity/exercise that doesn't need to have physical contact/interaction with other people, especially if the swimming pool is well-maintained and properly chlorinated with limited lap swimmers at one time, and not meant for people who just want to be in the pool to enjoy some leisure playful water activities for fun. Refraining from swimming is like stopping a safe and effective regular treatment for those who depend largely on regular swimming to maintain sanity without using drugs that doesn't really cure depression but induce many bad side-effects.

Other than there's frustration built up due to the movement restriction for months, there's also the side-effect of the prolonged partial or total lockdown resulting in the economic downturn causing joblessness or pay cut to more and more people, as well as there's anxiety, tension and fear towards contracting the virus or being 'punished' for unwittingly violating the many confusing unfamiliar new 'laws' that were being introduced and implemented in order to 'slow down' the spread of the virus, that has been going on for months, and most possibly will continue for the next few years, as this 'fast mutating' virus seems to be going to hang around in the world for a much longer time than we would like it to be.

It's quite unpleasant and challenging, even for those who think and believe they are 'optimistic', not to say, it's really hard for those who are less 'optimistic'.

For many people, the long term side-effects of the prolonged pandemic affecting people's everyday life and livelihood, might be worst than contracting the virus itself.

What's important now, is how people can maintain their over-all physical and mental well-being living under the movement restriction, and how people cope with this 'meh' condition of the pandemic, be able to get through/survive this global challenging time being, and be ready to live with the virus hanging around us for many more months or years, and be able to make adjustment to adapt the long term side-effects that affect and change everyone's way of life and livelihood.

Different people cope with the 'meh' condition differently in their own way. There's no 'the best way' of coping any kind of situation for everyone. Everyone needs to find their own way to cope with this 'challenging' condition in the world.

During the partial or total lockdown, people are being advised to stay at home as much as possible, where some people might need to start creating and following a planned schedule for themselves to perform certain task and activity at home for maintaining their physical and mental health, while for some others, they might not need to have a planned schedule but just live life spontaneously that might work better for them that helps to maintain their physical and mental health. Some people need to keep busy physically and/or mentally, while some others might need to be more laid back physically and/or mentally.

Patience, tolerance and understanding towards oneself and among human beings within a family or a community is much needed in this time being, as the state of the mind of many people could be toppled by the 'meh' condition and would behave irrationally, whether wittingly or unwittingly.

Unintentionally, some people could actually be benefited from this pandemic life experience, and develop certain understanding/insight that could change their over-all perspective towards many things about themselves and/or life existence.

Some people becoming more creative and/or productive due to having a lot less 'distractions' due to the partial or total lockdown.

Some people started to be aware of certain things that exist in life but they didn't notice before until they have the opportunity to reflect upon themselves and life during the partial or total lockdown.

Some people realized that they don't really love themselves or the people whom they thought they loved, while some might learn how to love and look after themselves and others.

For yoga practitioners, one lives life in the present as it is, adjust, adapt, accommodate, free from craving and aversion, and all is impermanent.

'Good friend' vs 'wise company' or Satsanga

People often talk about 'Friends are highly important in life', where 'good friends' are those who are intelligent/educated/knowledgeable enough to inspire one another in those fields, who are like-minded, who are available being there physically/mentally/emotionally 'caring' for one another, to be fun interacting and playing with, to do something 'great' together, to 'help' and 'console' one another or to 'protect' and 'stand up for' one another when it's needed. Some people can't even manage their own existing life problems, but still want to be busy minding other people's or so called friend's ceaseless many kind of 'problems', and ending up bringing more 'problems' into one's life.

People might think and say that "This is what true good friends are, sharing one's another problems. The world is such a wonderful place full of people unhesitating generating all kinds of problem here and there that can be shared by many good friends. Creating problems, sharing problems and standing up for one another indicate that the world is full of love and kindness."

On the path of yoga or Buddhism, a true 'good friend' is a 'wise company' or 'Satsanga' who is not necessarily someone intelligent/educated/knowledgeable to inspire one another in those fields, or being like-minded and being there physically/mentally/emotionally for one another, being fun to interact and play with, but someone who is wise and independent enough to look after oneself by minimizing or not generating unnecessary 'problems'/'inconvenience' in one's life and/or other people's life, where oneself doesn't really 'need' anyone who is like-minded being there physically/mentally/emotionally to be fun to 'interact and play with', or to 'help', 'console', 'protect' and 'stand up for' oneself for anything, as the one who is free from ignorance and egoism, doesn't generate unnecessary 'problems' and knows how not to get involve with other people's unnecessary 'life problem'/'social media related problem'/'relationship problem'/'emotional problem'/'financial problem' that occur due to ignorance, egoism and impurities, while 'selflessly' and 'intentionlessly', one's wisdom and independence might or might not be inspiring others to also be wise and independent to be looking after themselves, by minimizing or stop generating unnecessary 'problems' in one's life and/or other people's life.

Meanwhile, 'Kutsanga' are those so called 'friends' who consume one's time, attention and energy into 'sharing and solving' their unnecessary 'problems' that arise due to ignorance and egoism, as these 'friends', even among the intelligent/educated/knowledgeable group of people, will keep generating 'problems' in their life 'unwittingly' out of ignorance and egoism that 'needed' to be shared by their friends, and cause distraction/obstacle to one's practice for yoga of silencing the modification of the mind. But then this would be perceived as something 'selfish', 'inhuman', or 'wrong' by many passionate people in the world.

Selfless yoga practitioners don't have any intention/aspiration to inspire anyone for anything, while allowing everyone to perceive, react and feel the way as they are.

Whether people would be inspired by someone or something, or not, it's coming from the people themselves perceiving, reacting and feeling being inspired, or not, it's not coming from someone or something being inspiring and has the 'power' to inspire everyone. Most of the time, something really 'good' might appear to be 'uninspiring' for many people, and vice versa.

Compassion manifests along the realization of selflessness, respecting the law of nature, impermanence, cause and effect, while may or may not selflessly/intentionlessly 'guiding' other beings towards the realization of selflessness, wisdom and compassion, be free from ignorance and egoism, though this might appear to be 'inhuman', 'unloving', 'wrong' or 'harsh' for the passionate minds. It's nothing to do with what the passionate minds think and believe as 'The kind of human relationship, interaction and behavior that project loving kindness in certain way' that is unwittingly encouraging and empowering ignorance and egoism in the world.

This teaching is not about one shouldn't have any friends in life. It's about whether the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, or not, especially for those who want to practice yoga and meditation to transcend the mind perception of a worldly life existence of names and forms that is subject to impermanence and selflessness.

The minds that are free from ignorance and egoism, will be friendly towards all and everyone, unconditionally without discrimination of personal likes and dislikes/agreements and disagreements based on particular thinking and belief, appearance, gender, race, nationality, behavior, cultural/religious values and practice, without the 'need' of making and accumulating personal friendships that can share and interact with physically/mentally/emotionally in order to feel good, happy, love, joyful or meaningful, or to be 'healthy' physically/mentally/emotionally. There's no 'friends' or 'not friends' in the minds that are free from ignorance and egoism.

Passionate minds, including health professionals and yoga enthusiasts, cannot comprehend that human beings can be happy and healthy as one is, regardless of whether being interacting or not interacting with some other human beings physically/mentally/emotionally, without suffering from the sense of loneliness, joylessness, meaninglessness, left out or unloved if there's lack of such social interaction.

There's nothing wrong with having a few or many friends in life, but if the mind strongly thinks and believes that having no 'friends' to share, interact or play with, is something bad, wrong, negative, terrible, joyless, meaningless, unhealthy or lonely, then it shows that the mind is not free from ignorance and egoism. If the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, free from egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion and expectation, then regardless of whether one has none, or a few, or many friends in life, to share, interact and play with physically/mentally/emotionally, there's no difference. This mind is free and peaceful as it is, being undetermined by 'how many (good) friends one has', to be happy, joyful and peaceful, or not. The mind is free from the sense of loneliness/meaninglessness/joylessness/left out/unloved, if 'friends' that can share, interact and play with physically/mentally/emotionally are not available.