be free, be happy, be peaceful

May all find the teacher within to guide oneself towards unconditional love and peace

Friday, January 29, 2021

The world doesn't belong to anyone

Everyone think and say that they love the world.

People love the world so much that everyone want to 'control' and 'protect' the world to be in certain way that they think it's the best way, according to their particular likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, based on their particular social/cultural/religious/spiritual/political/commercial thinking, belief, values and practice.

Different groups of people representing different types of nationality/ethnicity/culture/religion/spirituality/politic/commercial are fighting and hurting one another to 'control' and 'protect' the world to be the way that each group wants it to be.

People think they love the world so much, and hence, they need to protect the world, but it's not.

People just want to possess and control the world to be theirs, to be the way that they desire it to be.

The world doesn't belong to anyone.

The world is selfless, impermanent and non-discriminative.

Nature will provide sufficient needs for all and everything existing in the world, even if it's just ceaseless momentary existence coming and going.

Unfortunately, the world is occupied by such human beings that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism, who think they love the world very much and they need to be doing something to 'protect' the world, but they are hurting the world, out of selfish desire, boundless greed and survival instinct, but they claim it's love and protection towards the world.

It's the same in the body and the mind.

The body and the mind doesn't belong to anyone, but there's an idea of 'I' claims ownership over the body and mind, and thinks that 'I' love my body and my mind, and 'I' need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' my body and my mind to be in certain way, that 'I' think and desire how it should be.

It's the same in human relationships with each other.

People think and say that they love some others and their relationships with some others, and they need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' those whom they love and their relationships, so that everyone and everything will be good the way that they think how it should be.

It's the same in a country.

The government and the politicians say that they love the citizen and their country, and they need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' the citizen and the country.

It's the same in religion and spirituality.

The religion and spirituality people say that they love their religion and spirituality, and their believers and followers, and they need to do something to 'control' and 'protect' their religion and spirituality, and their believers and followers.

It's the same in any ethnicity and culture.

It's the same in any family, group, society and community.

Human beings just keep hurting all and everything in the world, out of what they think is 'love'.

This 'love' is not about loving the object of love unconditionally and non-discriminatively as it is, but it's loving one's desire towards all and everything should be in certain way that one likes, wants and agrees with.

Don't love the world.

The world doesn't need to be loved.

Don't love anyone and anything, if we would hurt everyone and everything that we think we love very much.

Inquire towards the truth of everything, and be free.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Inquire towards the truth of racism and discrimination

Most people would want to fight for freedom of expression, action and speech.

Many people also want to fight against racism and discrimination, may it be coming from within the society of diversity, or coming from unjust bias government policy.

Many people have no idea/notion/intention of citing racism and discrimination when they want to express, do or say something.

Unfortunately, out of ignorance, anti-racism and anti-discrimination generated lots of unnecessary sensitivity surrounding racism and discrimination that heavily restricting and going against freedom of expression, action and speech, where many people are easily being 'offended' by certain 'expression', 'action' and 'speech', or even the usage of certain scenes, colours, shapes, forms, sounds and words, that they perceive/judge/label/believe/identify/refer/relate as a form of citing 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult', or 'offensiveness'.

May it be those who think and feel themselves are being 'discriminated', or 'racist against', or 'insulted', or 'offended' by what they perceive as 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness', and they identifying themselves as the victims of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness', or some other people who want to support those whom they think and believe as the victims of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness', where many people are developing excessive/exaggerate unnecessary high-sensitivity towards certain (and will be increasing) scenes, colours, shapes, forms, sounds, words and maybe some other names and forms, in certain point of view, discussion, expression, speech, writing, artwork, dance choreography, music, song, painting, drawing, sculpture and any other forms of expression/idea/creativity, which ignorant egoistic human minds project the quality of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness' onto almost everything that they perceive, where almost all and everything would also being perceived by these ignorant egoistic minds as something containing the elements of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness', and they don't allow anything that they perceive as containing the element of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness' to be existing in the world, where people are not allowed, or be condemned, or even be criminalized for the usage of certain scenes, colours, shapes, forms, sounds and words containing what these ignorant egoistic minds perceived as 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness'.

People want freedom of expression, action and speech, BUT, only limited to within our own acceptance and agreement based on our petite mindedness of how we perceive and judge everything based on our particular thinking, belief, understanding, judgment, values and practice, where minds are easily being disturbed, offended, hurt, insulted by anything that the minds perceive/think/believe/judge/label as a form of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness' towards the identity of certain names and forms that different people identifying as who 'I' am.

For example, about colour. The usage of colours or words of 'white' and 'black' is being 'perceived', 'projected', 'identified', 'labelled' and 'referred' as containing the element of 'racism' and 'discrimination' by those who are anti-racist and anti-discrimination.

The colour of white and black, or the word of 'white' and 'black', have no quality, or meaning, or power, or intention to be 'racist' or 'discriminative'. But they are being 'perceived' and 'projected' by certain people who are anti-racist and anti-discrimination with the quality/meaning/power/intention that contain the element of racism and discrimination.

People who are anti-racism and anti-discrimination are highly sensitive towards the usage of the colour and word of 'white' or 'black' in any kinds of expression, action and speech. And they protest against the use of certain words and colours that reflect 'white' or 'black'.

If the word 'Whitening' is being labelled as a form of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' and 'offense' towards dark skin tone people, then any colour related to many human beings different types of skin tone will also be 'racist', 'discriminative', 'insult' and 'offensive' towards the different people who come with different types of skin tone. The word 'Darkening' will be labelled as 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' and 'offense' towards fairer skin tone people. Any expression towards any particular colour that certain people like or don't like, prefer or don't prefer, will be labelled as a form of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' and 'offense' towards the many different skin tone people, may it be 'yellow', 'orange', 'brown', 'pink', 'green', 'blue' and so on, not just 'white' or 'black'. But if this ridiculous sensitivity over the usage of the different colours and words in all kinds of expression, action and speech continuing to be amplified, over-rated and supported by many people who want to go against 'racism' and 'discrimination', then all kinds of colours can also become a thing that contain the element of racism, discrimination, insult and offensiveness in everyday life. Then no one is going to be allowed to have or mention any colours that they prefer or don't prefer, like or dislike, in everything in life anymore. The world becomes a colourless world won't stop those who are ignorant to continue being ignorant, and won't stop those who intentionally want to be racist, sexist and discriminative against anyone and anything that they dislike and disagree with, continuing to be racist, sexist and discriminative.

Life can be so simple and free, but it's becoming so complicated and not free due to many people are being highly sensitive towards all kinds of names and forms that are being projected with the quality of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness' by the highly sensitive minds.

To free the world from any kinds of racism and discrimination, definitely is not achievable by 'protecting' the highly sensitive minds through restricting, disallowing and criminalizing people on "Do not express, do, or say anything that anyone would feel being offended, insulted, discriminated or racist against," which doesn't really eliminate all kinds of racism and discrimination, but instead, it would be empowering the existence of racism and discrimination in the world, that directly and indirectly hinders the freedom of expression, action and speech that most people are fighting for, which is much needed to develop a 'healthy' society, than having a 'sick' society that live under 'oppression', 'control', 'criminalization' and 'prosecution' that are being widely abused in the world.

It's about teaching and training all and everyone regardless of the different diversity of different appearance/colour/shape/ethnicity/nationality/gender/sexual orientation/culture/religion/spirituality/belief/educational background/health and fitness condition/ability and disability, of young and old, to 'respect' and 'allow' all kinds of names and forms being existing in the world as they are, without projecting the quality of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness' onto any kinds of names and forms that they perceived through the senses of what they see, hear, smell, taste, sense/feel and think, and they wouldn't be disturbed, offended, hurt, or insulted by all kinds of names and forms, even if there are certain people who deliberately want to be citing 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' or 'offensiveness' against certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with, out of ignorance and egoism, self-righteousness, pride and arrogance.

It has to come from people's own conscience/understanding towards "Respecting and allowing all kinds of different names and forms being existing in the world, as they are," and "All kinds of names and forms have no intention or power to 'disturb', 'offend', 'hurt' or 'insult' anyone or anything, even if it's coming from certain minds with such intention, unless the minds have ignorant egoistic attachment and identification, craving and aversion towards certain qualities of names and forms, and the minds 'perceive' and 'project' certain quality onto certain names and forms, identifying/labeling/referring them as 'disturbing', 'offending', 'hurting' and 'insulting', and 'allowing' themselves to be disturbed, offended, hurt, or insulted by those names and forms that they themselves 'perceived', 'projected', 'identifying', 'labeling' and 'referring' as 'disturbing', 'offending', 'hurting' and 'insulting', whether it's intentional or unintentional from anyone, (where mostly are non-intentional from anyone,) but it's coming from one's mind being overly sensitive, deriving from one's own attachment and identification towards certain qualities of names and forms that oneself identifying with as 'I'."

Those who are intentionally being racist and discriminative against certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with, would be expressing, doing and saying certain things under certain names and forms that they want other people whom they want to be racist and discriminative against to 'understand' their intention/aspiration/expression of "I don't like you and I don't agree with you. I am being racist and discriminative against you. I am intentionally expressing, doing and saying things that I think would hurt and insult you. And I feel good about that and I am being very proud of that." They don't respect and can't allow those whom they dislike and disagree with, whom they want to be racist and discriminative against, whom they intentionally want to hurt and insult, for being existing in their surrounding environment, for being who they are, and for expressing, doing and saying what they want to express, do and say. While they themselves don't like to be 'disrespected' and 'disallowed' for being existing, for being who they are, and what they want to express, do and say.

Aren't everyone who are anti-racism and anti-discrimination also behave, act and react similarly as those who intentionally want to be racist and discriminative?

If people truly want to support freedom of expression, action and speech, is not by 'disallowing', 'controlling', 'condemning', 'criminalizing', and 'prosecuting' those who intentionally want to be racist and discriminative, or more even so, most of those who don't have any intention/idea to be racist, discriminative, insulting or offending towards anyone or anything while expressing, doing and saying something, but their expression, action and speech are being perceived and judged as containing the elements of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' and 'offense' by the majority of the human beings who are under the influence of ignorance and egoism, who are highly sensitive and who are easily be disturbed, offended, hurt, or insulted by any names and forms that they perceive and judge as disturbing, offending, hurtful and insulting.

People should be allowed being what they are, as they are, even though we might not like or agree with certain behavior or way of thinking, may it be we ourselves don't like and don't agree with other people, or other people don't like and don't agree with ourselves.

It's about how all and everyone react towards everything that they perceived, and know what is non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment and non-expectation, or not, that enable or prevent the minds to be free from perceiving, judging or reacting towards all kinds of disturbing, offensive, hurtful or insulting behavior deriving from some ignorant, egoistic, prideful and arrogant people regardless of intentional or unintentional, which then allowing all and everyone to be who they are, as they are, being ignorant and behaving ignorantly, or not, that allowing freedom of expression, action and speech to be happening as it is, even though most people might still be disliking and disagreeing with one another due to ignorance and egoism, self-righteousness, pride and arrogance.

This doesn't mean that we are promoting and supporting all kinds of violent damaging behavior in the world, as what most 'good' people are concerning about.

All those intentional racist and discriminative expression, action and speech in the world will loose their meanings and potential to disturb and hurt anyone, not because they don't or can't exist anymore due to restriction and criminalization towards certain expression, action and speech, but it's because those who are free from ignorance and egoism stop reacting in the way that give meaning and power to these names and forms to be something that the ignorant egoistic prideful arrogant racist discriminative minds want them to be, which is racist, discriminative, hurtful, insulting and offensive, where they expect people whom they dislike and disagree with to react and feel disturbed, hurt, insulted and offended, and they would feel good about themselves for being successfully 'hurting' those whom they are being racist and discriminative with.

It's about understanding that all kinds of behavior are under the influence of the state of the mind. One won't be intentionally be discriminative towards anyone for anything if the state of the mind is free from the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities. All kinds of intentional and unintentional ignorant violent damaging behavior, action and reaction are deriving from the mind that is functioning under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities.

More importantly, it has to come from self-awareness and self-control towards the state of the mind that influence one's behavior.

No matter how much 'oppression', 'control', 'condemn', 'criticism', 'criminalization', 'prosecution' and 'punishment' that human beings introduced to curb 'racism' and 'discrimination', especially by restricting freedom of expression, action and speech further and further, until one day, no one is allowed to express, do, or say anything, as anything also can turn into a form of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'hurts', 'insult' and 'offense' being perceived and projected by the 'pampered' ignorant egoistic highly sensitive minds, it doesn't eliminate ignorance, egoism and impurities in human minds in the world, and definitely it won't stop ignorant egoistic human beings from behaving in the way that is under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities.

It's about all and everyone work on freeing one's mind from ignorance, egoism and impurities. The issue surrounding racism and discrimination will disappear from one's mind upon the annihilation of ignorance, egoism and impurities. There will be less beings in the world would behave, act and react ignorantly upon the annihilation of ignorance, egoism and impurities in human minds. It's not by trying to eliminate the issue of racism and discrimination in the world by restricting, controlling, condemning, criminalizing and prosecuting "Freedom of expression, action and speech" in order to stop or minimize issue of racism and discrimination. It doesn't work, as human minds are still functioning under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, even being 'restricted', 'controlled', 'condemned', 'criminalized' and 'prosecuted' for certain expression, action and speech that are intentionally or unintentionally containing the elements of racism, discrimination, hurt, insult, or offensiveness.

When self-righteous people are discriminating against and criminalizing anyone or anything that they think and believe as containing the elements of 'racism', 'discrimination', 'insult' and 'offense', they don't see it as 'discrimination' and 'anti-freedom of expression, action and speech', they see it as 'upholding righteousness and peace in the world the way that they think how it should be'. It's not. It's what people think and believe as the best solution to curb the issue of racism and discrimination in the world, out of ignorance and egoism as well.

The wise and compassionate saints and sages renounced the world, focusing on attaining their own liberation from ignorance and suffering, let the world be the world, let people behave the way that they behave, let all and everyone realize their own wisdom and liberation from ignorance and suffering through their own effort, or not. And after attaining liberation from ignorance and suffering, they may, or may not, come back into the society, to disseminate the universal teachings to those who have self-awareness and be self-initiated to receive and practice the teachings that would lead them towards attaining liberation from ignorance and suffering, regardless of all the different qualities of names and forms that all and everyone have, which is not who they are.

One doesn't need to react based on how other people expect people to react. One couldn't be discriminated for anything by any 'discriminative names and forms', even though there is intentional discrimination coming from ignorant egoistic prideful arrogant minds against certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with. That's their freedom for being what they are, being discriminative, racist or sexist. Other people have the freedom for being non-discriminative, non-racist or non-sexist, without anti-racism or anti-discrimination. While some others have the freedom to be anti-racism and anti-discrimination if they want, but they don't have to. Just as people have the freedom to feel being disturbed, hurt, insulted and offended, if they want, but they don't have to.

All and everyone want freedom for being who they are, but, at the same time, they also don't like and don't allow other people being who they are. That's the power of ignorance.

In certain culture, the mentioning of 'fat' to someone is something insulting and inappropriate, while in another culture, it's being perceived as complimenting and non-inappropriate.

Just as the word 'ignorance' is neither good nor bad, but it would be perceived as belittling, offensive and insulting by the minds that are prideful and arrogant and wouldn't like to be related to ignorance, while the minds that are free from pride and arrogance wouldn't be belittled, offended or insulted, but acknowledging that it's the truth of most minds including oneself, are not free from the influence of ignorance.

Those who are racist and would deliberately invoke any kinds of discrimination towards certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with, are actually suffering from a form of mental disturbance. They can't help themselves by having such strong aversion towards certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with. Just like some people are suffering from certain mental disturbance where they would get very irritated or disgusted upon coming in contact with certain objects of names and forms that they strongly averse towards, such as particular sight, shape, colour, sound, smell, taste, sensation, visualization, space, position, or direction, as well as being disturbed by other people's certain ways of doing certain things. There are quite many people are suffering from certain kind of mental disturbance, but mostly are not aware of it.

Just like we would feel sympathy towards those who are suffering from certain physical or mental illness, we can also be compassionate towards those who can't help themselves for being racist and discriminative, because they are in a form of mental suffering.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Sunday, January 24, 2021

Inquire towards the truth of confidence and self-confidence

Because most people were being told from young that confidence and self-confidence is a highly important quality that will influence and determine whether someone will be successful in whatever one pursues, and whether one will achieve certain accomplishment in life, or not, where people were being told that they need to have self-confidence, or what people refer as 'believing in oneself', as well as to develop and empower the sense of confidence, or what people refer as have faith in everything that support everything to be possible, where people think and believe that confidence or faith will make all the impossible become possible, and hence, people might not understand that they don't really need to have self-confidence to be who they are, that they don't really need confidence at all for carrying out their duties and responsibilities, looking after themselves or other beings, and for doing something or achieving something in life, whether it's something essential or non-essential.

That's why the very basic yoga practice is about freeing the mind from being conditioned by all kinds of worldly egoistic social/cultural/religious/spiritual/commercial/political/educational thinking, belief, values and practice. And this seems to be very hard for many yoga enthusiasts, where they would prefer to give themselves many justifications/reasons of why they don't need to be free from being conditioned by their existing inherited or adopted worldly thinking, belief, values and practice.

Quite many people are suffering from either low confidence (I can't do/achieve anything) or over confidence (I can do and achieve anything), which affect their life, their action/reaction, and their relationship with all and everyone.

The heart doesn't need to have self-confidence or confidence in order to be pumping the blood throughout the entire body every moment from the beginning of forming until it ceases functioning.

The hands don't need to have self-confidence or confidence to pick up a cup of hot drink, and to put down the hot cup instantly, because the cup is still too hot to hold.

The stomach and intestines don't need to have self-confidence or confidence to digest the food and extract nutrients from the food and to eliminate the non-digestible food waste.

It's either these organs are getting the enough supply of energy, hormones, secretions, oxygen, nutrients, minerals and water that they need, and the muscles and nerves are functioning properly, as well as not being overuse/over-worked, or not being attacked by some bacteria/virus, or not, in order to be functioning smoothly, or not.

It's the same in life. Self-confidence and confidence is not needed in order for someone to do or achieve something.

In the process of doing something, or trying to do or achieve something, or trying to be somebody, and whether one will be successful, or not, in one's pursue, self-confidence and confidence is irrelevant.

It's whether one has sufficient knowledge and understanding, and maybe also specific talent about something that one wants to do or achieve, and whether one has been training and practicing enough to develop and enhance the skill for doing or achieving something, as well as there are many other external factors that determine whether one can do or achieve something successfully at that specific time, space and causation, or not, even one has the sufficient talent, knowledge, understanding and skill in doing or achieving something.

We need to have certain knowledge and skill in order to do certain things or to achieve something, and different things or achievements require different types of knowledge and skill, on top of most things are sharing certain common knowledge and skill.

If we don't know how to do something because we don't have that particular knowledge and skill to do certain things or to achieve something, then we need to learn and practice until we can do certain things and to achieve something with the required knowledge and well-trained skill.

If someone has intense self-confidence strongly believing in oneself, and has high confidence towards oneself can do anything or can achieve anything successfully, but if without the specific knowledge or skill in doing certain things or to achieve certain achievements, it doesn't work.

What stops people from 'actually doing something regardless of what is the outcome', where people are having some ideas/thinking/aspiration about want to do something, but they have doubt, unsure, or uncertainty towards whether they can/should do it, or not, is because there is attachment and expectation towards the outcome or result has to be and not to be in certain way. There is fear towards failure and disappointment, or there's craving towards success and aversion towards failure. This fear towards failure and disappointment that stops people from actually doing something, is mainly due to pride and arrogance, "I cannot fail", "I don't want failure", and "I must succeed."

Those who are free from pride and arrogance, they can just do anything that they want, and they do their best in whatever they pursue, without thinking/considering about the possible outcome of success and failure, without fear towards failure or disappointment, and allowing the result/outcome to be what it is. They are not being determined by success and failure, or the outcome of their pursue. They understand that there is possibility of success and there is possibility of failure, and it's okay. If one just thinks about it but doesn't actually do it, then there is no possibility of achieving anything. This is nothing to do with self-confidence (faith and believing in oneself that one will be successful in everything that one wants to do and achieve) or confidence and faith towards anything that allows success in whatever people want to do or achieve.

If someone wants to be an architect, he or she needs to study architecture, and accumulates profound knowledge and develops understanding about architecture, and develops the specific skill that is required for being an architect. If someone has the interest in being an architect, but doesn't have the ability or talent to understand specific knowledge about architecture, or couldn't develop the required skill in being an architect, even after having enough knowledge about architecture, then even though one has intense self-confidence or high confidence about "I want to be an architect and I will be an architect for sure," but one couldn't become an architect due to some limitation. And it's okay. One can choose to do something else that is within one's ability, limitation and understanding, in the present moment. If after some time, the limitation that disallowed oneself to be an architect in the past have now changed for some reasons, where one can easily grasp the knowledge of architecture, or have no limitation to develop the required skill for being an architect, then one can pick up one's interest or ambition again. If it still doesn't work for some other reasons, it's okay.

It's the same as having expectation towards the outcome/result of one's action, by having intense self-confidence or high confidence strongly believing in oneself can do or achieve something successfully without failure, don't really change the outcome of one's action. It's either one do it, or not, and whether one gives one's best effort and full attention, or not, in the process of doing or achieving something. And whether the outcome/result is desirable, or not, it's nothing to do with the high or low expectation, and the high or low self-confidence and confidence.

It's the presence or absence of fear towards failure and disappointment, or the fear towards unable to do or achieve something due to pride and arrogance, and there is craving towards success/accreditation/acknowledgement/support and aversion towards failure/discredit/non-acknowledgement/losing support, that determining whether someone will be actually doing something and doing one's best to acquire the required knowledge and understanding, as well as being determined to be training and practicing the specific skill for doing something or achieving something, or not, without thinking about success and failure, without being determined by success and failure. One can be not successful in one's attempt to do or achieve something for some reasons, even after trying one's best with sufficient knowledge, understanding and skill for it, and it's okay.

For example, in any competitions.

One needs to have that specific talent, knowledge, correct understanding and skill in any particular type of competition, may it be something physical or mental, technical or artistic, or both. Upon having the specific talent, knowledge, correct understanding and skill, it requires lots of persistent but not excessive training and practicing to enhance the skill to the maximum, as well as be endowed with attention, focus, determination, perseverance, patience, forbearance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation in the process of training and practicing. Self-confidence and confidence has nothing to do with all these hard work, and doesn't change the outcome being what it is.

If the training or practice is not enough, if there is lack of attention, focus, determination, perseverance, patience, forbearance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation in the process of training and practicing, then it will influence the performance during the competition, for sure, even if oneself has intense self-confidence or high confidence about "I will win this competition and in all competitions," it doesn't work.

Those who understand, it's either win or loose/not winning in any competitions, and it's not that important, and will just do one's best and allow the result to be what it is. Maybe one's performance has been very good during training and practicing, but somehow, one's performance is not as good as it should be during the competition for some unexpected reasons, especially if it's a competition that requires team work or other people's coordination, and it's okay.

Sportsmanship, effort, attention, focus, non-expectation and acceptance are more useful and relevant than self-confidence or confidence and expectation in the process of training and practicing before the competition, and even more useful and relevant especially during the competition.

Another example, in crossing the road.

One needs to pay attention, and know to look out for any vehicles/cyclists/pedestrians/animals/objects coming from all directions and judge whether it's safe to cross the road at that timing, or not. One doesn't need to have self-confidence or confidence to cross the road. It's the presence or absence of fear that determines whether the person can cross the road calmly with the required attention and judgment of whether it's safe to cross at that timing, or not, as well as the patience to be waiting until it's safe to cross, even if the green light for the pedestrian crossing is on, as certain reckless irresponsible road users might not stop at the red light. By having strong self-confidence or confidence, or even intense faith in God, about "I can just cross the road anytime that I want and I don't need to pay attention or look out for any vehicles/cyclists/pedestrians/animals/objects coming from any directions, and nothing is going to happen on me," is mere ignorance.

For example, getting into a relationship.

By having strong self-confidence and high confidence in oneself doesn't determine that the person whom we love, will love us, or not, or want to be in a relationship with us, or not.

Some people say that they are not confident to love someone, or to be in a relationship with someone. But that is nothing to do with confidence, but it's actually fear towards being rejected, or aversion towards getting into a bad/difficult/problematic/failed relationship with the wrong person. Like anything else, one needs to know what is love and how to love before loving someone and getting into a relationship with someone, without hurting oneself and those whom one wants to love, and wants to be in a relationship with. Knowing what is love and how to love someone, is nothing to do with high or low self-confidence and confidence, but it's whether we know what is unconditional non-possessive desireless love, and know what is non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion and non-expectation, or not.

Last, but not least example, in giving birth.

Self-confidence and confidence is irrelevant in the labour process. Some women don't have any knowledge about conceiving and nurturing a baby, and doesn't have high self-confidence or confidence, but they still deliver their babies like everyone else. Some women may have high self-confidence or confidence towards delivering a healthy baby, but things might not happen exactly the way that they think and anticipate how it should be. Whether one is being a good mother, or not, is nothing to do with low or high self-confidence and confidence about "I am equipped with the knowledge and skill of being a good mother. I will be a good mother and I am a good mother." or "I don't know whether I will be a good mother, or not." It's about doing one's best to love unconditionally without attachment, possessiveness and expectation, and guiding the child wisely and compassionately, while learning and gaining experience throughout the entire process of bringing up a child.

No matter how strong is one's self-confidence believing in oneself, or has high confidence/faith towards God, the doctor/midwife and nurses, or being positive and optimistic, or how much knowledge about conceiving and nurturing a baby during pregnancy and after birth that one has, and has been planning a specific way to deliver the baby spiritually, efficiently or painlessly, or how well one has been preparing physically and mentally in delivering the baby, and still, it's not in one's control of how everything happens during the entire pregnancy, especially during the process of labour. Most women will say, it's so painful that one wouldn't think of anything else, about all the projection, preparation, anticipation or expectation, but just do one's best to deliver the baby safely within the shortest time as much as possible, minimizing the pain and any risk that endangering the safety of the mother and the baby, regardless of using whatever way that is most suitable at that time to deliver the baby to ensure the safety of the mother and the baby.

The process of learning and performing the yoga asana practice with the correct understanding is all about these. It's nothing to do with self-confidence or confidence in the process of learning or performing certain yoga asana poses, with the aspiration/expectation of "I can and will be able to do all these yoga asana poses perfectly." But, it's about being free from egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, on top of developing attention, focus, determination, perseverance, patience, forbearance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation, that allow the practitioner to keep trying and keep practicing until the practice comes to an end, upon Self-realization, without thinking about success and failure, or the outcome/result of the practice, without being determined by the ups and downs, pleasantness and unpleasantness, success and failure, what the body can do or cannot do, or what the mind knows and doesn't know during the entire process of learning and practicing.

More importantly, what the body can do or cannot do, and what the mind knows and doesn't know, as well as how much benefits/goodness/enjoyment or unpleasantness/difficulty one has been receiving from the yoga asana practice, doesn't determine whether the mind will attain Self-realization and be free from ignorance and suffering, or not. But the perseverance and determination of keep practicing without attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, the ability of letting go and allowing everything to be what they are, as they are, and respecting all are impermanent, it doesn't matter after many years of practicing, the body still cannot perform many of the yoga asana poses, or whether can do all the poses comfortably/nicely, or not, will leads the mind towards Self-realization.

There's no need of self-confidence and confidence in anything, especially in selflessness.

Inquire the truth of everything and be free.

Saturday, January 23, 2021

What makes a person truly confident?

Many people would think and believe that the higher education, knowledge, physical and mental ability, experience, qualification, title, living standard, health condition, fitness level, wealth, success, achievement and contribution that one has, and the more love, liking, agreement, acknowledgment, acceptance, appreciation, accreditation, recognition, approval, respect, praise and compliment received from other human beings from the family, the friends circle, the social network, the community and the society, or from certain organization and authority, that worth being proud of by oneself and others, then the higher the confidence will be.

People are being advised, or coached, or brought up in the way that in order to empower or boost their sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness or meaningfulness, people need to work on developing, equipping, attaining, possessing, accumulating and empowering all these names and forms in themselves that worth being proud of. People would then be acknowledged, accredited, praised and complimented for every single 'development', 'improvement' or 'achievement' in all those names and forms, regardless of big or small, to let people think and feel that "I know something", "I can do something", "I can achieve something", "I can give and contribute", "I worth something", "I deserve something", "I am good", "I am good enough", "I am beautiful", "I am strong", "I am useful", "I am meaningful", "I am loved and appreciated", "I am proud of myself", "People are proud of me", and so on, which would 'empower' people's sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness and meaningfulness.

But that sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness or meaningfulness that built on any impermanent and selfless qualities of names and forms is not real. It's subject to selfless impermanent changes. That's why people can still be experiencing/perceiving/suffering from different kinds of mental and emotional suffering even after attended many different types of empowerment workshops that empowers all these names and forms, that have been helping them on achieving higher education, knowledge, physical and mental ability, experience, qualification, title, living standard, health condition, fitness level, wealth, success, achievement and contribution, and they have been receiving certain amount of liking, agreement, acknowledgment, acceptance, appreciation, accreditation, recognition, approval, respect, praise and compliment from other human beings, especially when all these names and forms start to change into something else, that is no longer available or being the way that they desire it to be.

People would be in painful suffering when the function of the physical body and the thinking faculty starts to deteriorate, when they loose their memory, physical and mental ability, health, fitness, wealth, job, carreer, business, beloved family, relationship, friendship, or companionship, and etc.

The real confidence is beyond qualities, names and forms that are subject to impermanence and selflessness. The real confidence is when 'confidence', 'self-esteem', 'self-worth', 'satisfaction', 'purposefulness' and 'meaningfulness' are not needed to be existing in life existence, when people are no longer being determined or valued by any of all these impermanent qualities of names and forms to be 'who I am', to be proud of, or not, and to be happy, or not.

One can be highly successful in all pursues, but one is not being determined by all those names and forms, as well as there's no fear of losing all those names and forms that generate all kinds of success to oneself.

Those who know this, they are aware of and acknowledging all the physical and mental ability and disability or limitation, what the mind knows and doesn't know, where they can make use of the limited ability and knowledge to be doing something in this world, or not, while they can also work on improving/expanding their limited ability and knowledge, or not, but they are not being determined by all these impermanent and selfless qualities of names and forms to be who they are. They are fine as they are, and they know it's impermanent, and they are fine with all the impermanent changes, as they are. They don't need to develop or empower the sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness or meaningfulness to be 'Somebody that I and other people be proud of', as they know all these names and forms are nothing but the by-products of ignorance and egoism deriving from the worldly ignorant egoistic minds that built on worldly egoistic social/cultural/religious/spiritual/commercial/political/educational thinking, belief, values and practice.

The life existence and function of this impermanent and selfless physical body and the thinking faculty needs to be maintained by sufficient energy and the elements of heat, water, air, nutrients, minerals, the earth, and the space for living/resting. They don't need to be maintained by ignorant egoistic passionate ideas/creations/desires/aspiration/inspiration born out of ignorance and egoism. One can live life as one is, without being determined or valued by the presence and absence of the sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness or meaningfulness that need to be maintained at a certain level, restlessly. What is success, what is failure, what is meaningful, what is meaningless, what is pride deserving, what is shame deserving, it means nothing to the impermanent selfless body and thinking mind.

There's no fear of losing the qualities and names and forms that make oneself and others feel proud of, that give rise to the sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness or meaningfulness, as it doesn't exist in them. There's no craving towards liking, agreement, acknowledgment, acceptance, appreciation, accreditation, recognition, approval, respect, praise and compliment from anyone. There's no aversion towards the absence of liking, agreement, acknowledgment, acceptance, appreciation, accreditation, recognition, approval, respect, praise and compliment from some others. There's absence of insult, offensiveness, defensiveness, disrespectfulness, belittling, loneliness, worthlessness, unloved, or left out.

Those who don't know this, they always live in fear of losing something that give rise to the sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, purposefulness or meaningfulness in them. There's craving and aversion towards the presence and absence of liking, agreement, acknowledgment, acceptance, appreciation, accreditation, recognition, approval, respect, praise and compliment from some others. There's presence of insult, offensiveness, defensiveness, disrespectfulness, belittling, loneliness, worthlessness, unloved and left out.

Those who are not being determined by any qualities of names and forms to be confident, or not, they might not know everything, they might not know how to do many things, and they might not speak many different languages, but they are not determined by all kinds of limitations that disallow them to do certain things, instead, they know how to make use of what they know, what they can do, and what language that they know, to be doing something or achieving something that is within their ability, without being determined by the limitations or what they don't know and can't do or achieve, without being determined by the outcome or the result of their actions being what it is, may it be highly successful, or little bit successful, or completely failure.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Friday, January 22, 2021

The selfless intentionless Atman is unconditioned by cause and effect

The realization of the selfless Self, the universal selfless consciousness, or Atman, the nature of all and everything beyond all the impermanent selfless names and forms, or in another term, the realization of selflessness, will free the perceptive thinking mind from the delusive self-existence that the ignorant egoistic impure intellectual assertive mind identifies as the existence of an individual being of 'I', where this 'I' attached onto impermanent and selfless qualities of names and forms which all are bound by the law of nature, of cause and effect, of what certain minds believe as good or bad karma, for being existing, changing and cease existing respectively according to cause and effect.

All kinds of names and forms, regardless of living beings or non-living objects, where all are impermanently and selflessly existing and changing under the law of nature are autonomously being bound by the law of nature, cause and effect, or what many people refer as 'karma'.

But the non-manifested selfless, nameless, formless, attributeless, birthless, deathless nature of everything beyond the impermanent selfless existence of names and forms, is undetermined by cause and effect, of the existence and non-existence of certain names and forms that selflessly affecting and influencing one another, of all the intentional and non-intentional actions and the consequences of actions, as well as all the impermanent selfless changes of all the names and forms.

This unborn, non-manifested, attributeless, beginningless, endless, ageless, changeless Atman beyond time, space and causation is void of substance, quality and ego or egoistic desire and intention, is unconditioned by cause and effect, or what many people refer as karma, even though all and everything are forming and deforming under the law of nature, cause and effect, under the witness of the selfless universal consciousness, Atman.

The minds that are functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism with a strong idea/perception of a self-existence of a personal/group identity cannot penetrate the teaching of "Selfless (there's no 'I' existing as the performer of action or the enjoyer of the fruit of action) and intentionless (void of good or bad intention) actions generated out of selflessness aren't bound by what many people refer as good or bad karma."

Because the ignorant egoistic mind needs to have certain desire, motivation or intention to be performing certain action and enjoying the fruit of action, it can't understand how actions are being performed selflessly, desirelessly and intentionlessly.

Within the physical body, there are countless individual cells inter-affecting/influencing and inter-supporting each other to be existing and functioning selflessly and intentionlessly, performing their individual duty in their respective system, organ and sense that allow this body and the thinking faculty to be existing and functioning. There is no ego, or the idea of 'I' within all these cells that are working/performing actions ceaselessly from the beginning of birth (the selfless forming of this body) until death (the body breaks down and disintegrates selflessly.) While the selfless existence and function of all these cells is being supported by the selfless and intentionless nature that provides selfless intentionless essential energy, elements, minerals, nutrients, water, air, temperature, and so on.

Just as the selfless intentionless existence and function of the sun in this universe that is ceaselessly supporting all and everything to be existing in this universe, selflessly, unconditionally, non-discriminatively, intentionlessly and desirelessly, is not bound by good or bad karma, even though the existence and function of the sun is also influenced by the law of nature, cause and effect, it is also subject to impermanent and selfless changes from the moment of forming until the moment of depletion, or disintegration. When people got sun burn or skin cancer due to too much exposure of sunlight, the sun isn't generating bad karma. When all and everything forming, growing, aging, decaying and deforming, where lives exist, enjoying, suffering, destroyed and cease existing due to the element of the sun, or any of the other elements, there is no good or bad karma being generated in all these selfless intentionless elements of the nature that inter-affecting and inter-influencing all and everything in the universe.

But somehow, out of ignorance, the selfless impermanent perceptive thinking faculty that comes along with the existence and function of this impermanent and selfless physical body, has an idea of 'I', of an individual identity, claiming ownership and authority over the existence of this impermanent and selfless physical body and the perception of an impermanent selfless worldly life existence, desiring and expecting and making the selfless body, the selfless life existence and the selfless world to be and not to be in certain ways according to the likes and dislikes, craving and aversion of this perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking mind, where the existence and function of the thinking faculty, or the mind, is also impermanent and selfless, that also is being supported by the impermanent and selfless existence and function of the physical body that is being supported by the selfless nature, but there is this thinking or thought in the mind, thinks and believes that 'I' exists as an individual being, and hence, 'I' am good and 'I' am bad, 'I' am superior and 'I' am inferior, 'I' deserve this and 'I' don't deserve that, 'I' want this and 'I' don't want that, 'I' aspire and 'I' inspire, 'I' am satisfied and 'I' am dissatisfied, 'I' am meaningful and 'I' am meaningless, 'I' perform action and 'I' don't perform action, 'I' am pleased and 'I' am hurt, 'I' enjoy and 'I' suffer, 'I' am happy and 'I' am unhappy, and so on. Where all these qualities of names and forms are also arising, changing and passing away, impermanently and selflessly under the influence of cause and effect.

There is qualities in karma. That's why people say there is good and bad karma. Anything that comes with impermanent qualities that constantly changing selflessly is still within the domain of Maya. It's not real, but the ignorant egoistic mind is being bound by karma, having an identity to be identifying as the performer of action and to enjoy or suffer the consequences of action.

The law of nature, of cause and effect, is nothing to do with quality. It's just the truth of what things are. They are impermanent and selfless. Everything exists, changes and cease existing being influenced by the selfless, attributeless, intentionless law of nature, of cause and effect. They are neither good nor bad. Neither positive nor negative. Neither happiness nor unhappiness. Neither right nor wrong. Neither appropriateness nor inappropriateness. Neither enjoyment nor suffering. And so on.

The realization of selflessness will free the existence and function of this physical body and the thinking faculty from being bound by what many people refer as good or bad karma (a by-product deriving from ignorance,) even though the existence and function of the physical body and the thinking faculty is still being conditioned by the law of nature, of cause and effect, to be existing, changing and cease existing. While the nature of everything, the Atman or Brahman, the universal selfless consciousness, where all these impermanent selfless names and forms deriving from, changing and residing upon, is uncontaminated/untouched/unconditioned by the selfless impermanent changes governed by the nature's law of cause and effect that exists along the selfless manifestation of impermanent names and forms.

No matter how much goodness, or badness, or evilness, or happiness and unhappiness that exist in this impermanent and selfless world of names and forms deriving from ignorant egoistic actions and reactions and the fruit of actions and reactions out of ignorance and egoism, it doesn't contaminate the unborn, non-manifested, attributeless, beginningless, endless, ageless, changeless Atman or Brahman, the selfless universal consciousness in all and everything that the ignorant egoistic impure perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking mind perceives through the senses and sense organs.

Even the most ignorant evil mind that has been intentionally performing many ignorant evil actions that bring along the ignorant evil consequences of actions, also can attain liberation upon Self-realization. Those who know this, they couldn't/wouldn't discriminate anyone, but all must work on their own liberation from ignorance through their own self-effort.

From this realization, the mind will understand that suffering is not due to bad karma and pleasurable enjoyment is not due to good karma, but both suffering and enjoyment are the by-products of ignorance and egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation.

The minds that attached strongly onto certain worldly egoistic social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice, to judge and categorize everything into good or bad, right or wrong, positive or negative, enjoyment or suffering, deserving or don't deserving, and so on, where they think and believe that they have been behaving in the good way and performing many good actions and not performing any bad actions, that they identify themselves as righteous, positive, good, loving, kind, sympathetic and empathetic human beings, but if they have strong discrimination and aversion towards names and forms of objects, beings, happenings, actions, reactions and behaviors that they judge and categorize as wrongful, negative, bad, unloving, unkind, unsympathetic or unempathetic, where they think and believe that these 'evil' names and forms don't deserve peace, happiness and liberation from suffering, but they deserve condemn, punishment and painful suffering, then these 'good and kind' minds are not free. They themselves are suffering greatly due to ignorance and egoism. And they couldn't understand or agree with this teaching about "The most ignorant evil person in this world also can attain liberation from suffering upon Self-realization, while many 'good and kind' people like themselves are still going through painful suffering," not to say, to be opened to inquire the truth of this teaching, as well as their own thinking, belief, values and practice which give rise to unnecessary suffering in themselves, and out of self-righteousness, they constantly interfering with other people's freedom of being, thinking, action and speech, generating hateful violent oppressive action/reaction and expression towards other people that they discriminate, dislike and disagree with, while thinking and believing that they themselves are the good and superior people in the world trying to uphold righteousness by oppressing, prosecuting, punishing and getting rid of what and whom they judge, think and believe as 'bad' and 'wrong'.

It's worst when the government of a country is run by such 'mentally corrupted' human beings under the influence of certain social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice. The people living in anywhere on earth that doesn't belong to anyone are inevitably being 'controlled', 'discriminated', 'oppressed', 'punished' and 'hurt' under the constitution of law and orders of certain country dominated and ruled by minds that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism. Unfortunately, the world is indeed full of such 'corrupted government' run by 'corrupted minds of human beings'.

Do not blind-believing, blind-following, blind-practicing and blind-propagating.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

The mind attaches onto whatever represents love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness

One of the great obstacle on the path of yoga towards Self-realization, is that the mind is not aware of the gross and subtle attachment generated towards whatever the mind perceives as love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness that it perceives in the worldly impermanent and selfless names and forms, of pleasurable, desirable, agreeable and lovable objects, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, feelings, beings, nature, environment, condition, space, places, possessions, experiences, achievements, contributions, relationships, connections, interactions and activities (regardless of spiritual or non-spiritual, physically, mentally or emotionally, including all kinds of calming or transcendental effects and physical or mental health benefits deriving from performing the yoga and meditation practice), that give rise to the sense of love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness, which is subject to impermanence and selflessness as well.

Only when the mind knows how to not attached towards not just the qualities of names and forms that give rise to the sense of lovelessness, badness, sorrowfulness and meaninglessness, but also not attached towards the qualities of names and forms that give rise to the sense of love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness, the mind will be able to transcend all the qualities and dualities, be free from being determined by the presence and absence of the sense of love/lovelessness, goodness/badness, joyfulness/sorrowfulness and meaningfulness/meaninglessness, which allows the mind to realize oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness.

Without attachment towards the qualities of names and forms that give rise to the sense of love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness doesn't mean that the mind is unappreciative or rejecting towards the presence of the impermanent and selfless names and forms that represent love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness under any particular social and cultural thinking, belief, values and practice, or unwilling to perform actions that would benefit oneself and others, but the mind is undisturbed/unhurt/non-suffering upon the absence of the sense of love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness, and the presence of the sense of lovelessness, badness, sorrowfulness and meaninglessness, due to the absence of certain qualities of names and forms that represent love, goodness, joyfulness and meaningfulness.

It's a habit of the mind or mind behavior pattern that is hard to break for many passionate minds, that is pulling the minds away from Self-realization, even after many years of practicing/teaching yoga and meditation regularly.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Eliminate the ego by letting go self-esteem that fed on egoism

Self-esteem and the ego is the two sides of a coin.

This delusive existence of the non-existing 'coin' born out of ignorance and egoism, is being fed, maintained and empowered by egoism and ignorance, and vice versa, where egoism and ignorance is being fed, maintained and empowered by the delusive existence of this 'coin'.

It attaches onto and identifies with qualities of names and forms to be existing and be identifying as this is 'I'.

By getting rid of self-esteem, is indeed eliminating the ego. To eliminate this 'coin', the mind needs to know what it is, and stops feeding it.

The ego feels superior, self-important, existence/love/respect deserving, proud and arrogant, high confident, useful, worthy and meaningful when the self-esteem is on a high level.

"I know something. I can do something. I achieve something. I am needed by some others. I can give and contribute to some others. I am loved, acknowledged and appreciated by some others. I am superior. My existence is useful, meaningful and deserving."

The ego feels inferior, non-important, existence/love/respect undeserving, low confident, useless, worthless and meaningless when the self-esteem in on a low level.

"I don't know much. I can't do much. I can't achieve something. I am not needed by some others. I can't give and contribute to some others. I am unloved, unacknowledged and unappreciated by some others. I am inferior. My existence is useless, meaningless and undeserving."

It's not about restlessly balancing the level of self-esteem, so that the ego can be maintaining at a 'just right' position influenced by a not too high and not too low level of self-esteem.

The modification of the mind can be free from such unnecessary suffering of restlessness due to attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation towards the presence and absence/possession and non-possession of different qualities of names and forms, to be determined as this is 'I', where there is no 'I' existing in all and everything.

It's about letting go the self-esteem that was being developed under the influence of worldly egoistic social/cultural/educational/religious/spiritual/political/commercial thinking, belief, values and practice, that fed on egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation towards the qualities of names and forms, where self-esteem doesn't need to be there at all, that determine the 'unnecessary value of existence' of a delusive existence of a non-existing 'I', as 'good', 'good enough' or 'not good enough', which influences the state of the mind, that influences the actions/reactions and the consequences of actions/reactions, which affects all and everything that the mind comes in contact with.

The existence of an impermanent selfless decaying physical body with the function of a selfless perceptive intellectual thinking mind that is subject to selfless impermanent changes influenced by the law of nature, doesn't need to be 'determined' by a delusive existence of a non-existing 'I', that is being determined by the egoism of attachment, identification, desires of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation towards qualities of names and forms that are all subject to impermanence and selflessness, that are being determined and empowered by the worldly egoistic social/cultural/educational/religious/spiritual/political/commercial thinking, belief, values and practice.

Any kind of 'empowerment ideas and workshops' targeting on any type of empowerment in the world in order to develop and boost the sense of self-esteem, self-importance, pride, worthiness, usefulness, meaningfulness, superiority and existence/love/respect deserving in the minds, is indeed deriving from ignorance and egoism, as well as empowering the ignorance and egoism.

The selfless minds don't need to be empowered. There is no 'existence of an individual being' that needs to be empowered. The selfless mind doesn't need to be loved, to be acknowledged, to be appreciated, to feel confident, to feel proud, to feel deserving, to feel meaningful, to feel useful, to feel worthy, to feel existing. It doesn't need to be 'connected' with 'all the others', as it's never separated from all and everything that exist under the manifestation of Maya, to be inter-supporting and inter-affecting one another.

It's the delusive existence of a non-existing 'I' that looks forward to be empowered, to be loved, to be acknowledged, to be appreciated, to feel confident, to feel proud, to feel deserving, to feel meaningful, to feel useful, to feel worthy, to feel existing, to be 'connected' with one another.

This delusive existence of a non-existing 'I' is the one that suffering from all kinds of mental and emotional suffering when it doesn't get the empowerment, love, acknowledgment, appreciation, confidence, pride, deserving treatment/result, the sense of meaningfulness, usefulness, worthiness and existence, and connection/connectivity that it needs, to be existing as this is 'I'.

It's about the selfless modification of the mind that is 'ignorantly' being influenced by ignorant egoistic worldly thinking, belief, values and practice needs to be free from being influenced by ignorant egoistic worldly thinking, belief, values and practice. That's all.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Sunday, January 10, 2021

The root cause of suffering

The manifestation of the selfless mind perception of a selfless worldly existence consist of impermanent and selfless names and forms born out of Maya, the veil of ignorance, which gives rise to the selfless formation of selfless elements that are subject to impermanence (restless changes) and selflessness (all the existence/non-existence and ceaseless selfless changes of the selfless formation of selfless elements are not in the control of the delusive non-existing self-existence of an idea of 'I'), that gives rise to the inevitable fundamental physical and mental suffering of restlessness in the perceptive living objects, being existing and changing selflessly/impermanently under the function of an impermanent and selfless physical body and the function of a perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking mind, selflessly/reluctantly perceiving restless modification of birth (the selfless formation of different selfless elements), hunger and thirst (the maintenance of the selfless formation of selfless elements), decay, old age, illness, ungratified desires, coming in contact with undesirable objects, separation from desirable objects (all the impermanent and selfless changes of the selfless formation of selfless elements,) and death (the selfless disintegration of different selfless elements).

The perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive mind consciously (aware) and sub-consciously (unaware) perceiving names and forms through the senses selflessly that activates the restless selfless modification of the mind, of ceaseless selfless thoughts, sensations, actions, reactions, feelings and emotions arising and passing away impermanently and selflessly, where countless births and deaths in different realms happening within the modification of the mind (the different states of mind), which also gives rise to the many different kinds of avoidable mental/emotional gross suffering deriving from ignorance and egoism influencing the function of the perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking minds, which all are nothing but the manifestation of Maya.

The delusive existence of the non-existing idea of 'I' born out of ignorance and egoism, is the one that experiences/suffers all kinds of suffering under the identification of "I am experiencing suffering."

Upon the annihilation of the idea of 'I' or the ego in the thinking mind, there's no 'I' being there to be identifying as "I am experiencing suffering."

Upon the complete annihilation of the restless selfless modification of the mind, or upon silencing the thoughts current, there is no 'perceiver of names and forms' being there to perceive painful suffering and/or pleasurable enjoyment.

Suffering exists due to there's the restless selfless modification of the mind perceiving all kinds of names and forms that are subject to impermanence and selflessness, as well as there's a delusive existence of the non-existing 'I' being existing in the mind perceiving "I am experiencing suffering," reacting upon coming in contact with undesirable objects of names and forms and non-coming in contact with desirable objects of names and forms.

The sufferer doesn't exist upon the annihilation of the delusive existence of the non-existing 'I' from the selfless perceptive thinking mind. It's like the selfless mirror is not being affected, determined, or disturbed by the ceaseless selfless reflection of any objects of names and forms being reflected upon it. But still, the 'impermanent existence' of the selfless mirror is still being conditioned by the nature of impermanence and selflessness.

There's no perception of suffering if the perceiver doesn't exist. There's nothing being projected that would be subject to impermanence and selflessness (non-existence of the suffering of restlessness) if the projector and the projector screen doesn't exist (the annihilation of the modification of the mind.) There is no 'perception of suffering' in a chair, or a house, or anything that doesn't have the perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking faculty or the modification of the mind, while undergoing inevitable selfless impermanent changes.

When the teachings of yoga and Buddhism talk about 'liberation', it's about the selfless perceptive thinking faculty is free from the delusive false identification and egoistic attachment towards the evitable gross suffering deriving from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance as well as the inevitable subtle suffering of restlessness, of ceaseless 'births and deaths/transitions/impermanent changes/decay and disintegration' that exists in all kinds of selfless impermanent names and forms.

And hence, the minds that are aware of the inevitable suffering of restlessness that exists along with the impermanent selfless modification of the mind, will work diligently towards attaining the complete annihilation of the modification of the mind, or as what Swami Sivananda mentioned in his teachings, "Kill the mind," where it's not about 'killing' the selfless impermanent existence of the selfless body with the selfless perceptive thinking faculty, or 'I' kill 'myself' (commit suicide), but, it's about silencing the restless impure modification of the mind under the influence of ignorance and egoism, or annihilating the wheel of restless selfless births and deaths/transitions of impermanent and selfless names and forms (thoughts current) that gives rise to the inevitable subtle suffering of restlessness due to the nature of impermanence and selflessness in all and everything under the manifestation of Maya.

Ignorance, is the mind doesn't know itself, its selfless existence and function, and its selfless impermanent restless impure modification (thought activities), or not knowing Thyself (the truth of selflessness and impermanence in all and everything).

There's neither good people nor bad people. It isn't about good or bad, right or wrong human's behavior based on any particular worldly egoistic thinking and belief about how people should and shouldn't behave, but sometimes, or most of the time, the mind behaves/acts/reacts under the influence of ignorance, while some other times, the mind behaves/acts/reacts without the influence of ignorance, or under the presence of correct understanding. Even when people behave/act/react in the way that they think and believe is good and right based on any particular worldly egoistic thinking and belief, but those behaviors/actions/reactions are not necessarily being free from the influence of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Those who are highly educated and knowledgeable, and those who are righteous/sympathetic/empathetic, are also not necessarily free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, and would behave/act/react ignorantly under the influence of impurities, of dissatisfaction, disappointment, ungratified desires, frustration, irritation, pride, arrogance, anger, hatred, jealousy, impatience, prejudice, discrimination, selfishness, offensiveness, defensiveness, possessiveness, hurt, insecurity, fear, and worry deriving from ignorant egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, and expectation, without correct understanding about the modification of the mind and the consequences of action/reaction, under the absence of self-awareness, self-control, patience, tolerance, forbearance, adjustment, adaptation, accommodation, acceptance, and so on.

Out of ignorance, the passionate egoistic minds, including plenty of yoga practitioners and teachers, justify that this is 'normal' human being's behavior, where people should be disturbed mentally and emotionally by something that the minds perceived as 'hurtful' and 'wrongful', to feel hurt and suffering, and they need to receive love, support, sympathy, and empathy from other human beings in order to feel better, that it's abnormal and wrong for anyone who is not being disturbed mentally and emotionally by 'hurtful' and 'wrongful' experiences. These minds refuse to practice non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, and non-expectation to free the mind from egoism and ignorance, which is the only reason why the minds are perceiving mental and emotional suffering, which is avoidable and unnecessary. But, deep ignorance hinders the minds from letting go such 'normal' human beings' behavior/thinking pattern that hurts themselves and/or others, and they are complaining and drowning in mental and emotional suffering that they think and believe is caused by other people's 'hurtful' and 'wrongful' behavior, while expecting love, support, sympathy, and empathy from other human beings, while keep telling oneself and others that this is 'normal' human being's behavior. That's their freedom of thinking.

Many so called 'mental health/psychological/life/relationship professionals/consultants/coaches/advisors' in the world are not necessarily free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, and are most probably functioning under the accumulated knowledge of the respective fields based on research/study/information under the influence of certain social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values, and practice, which empowers ignorance and egoism of attachment, identification, desires of craving and aversion, judgment, and expectation.

The only one that can truly help a mind that has mental/psychological/life/relationship issue/problem is no others but oneself, by freeing one's modification of the mind from ignorance and egoism, and knowing Thyself, knowing the truth of impermanence and selflessness, knowing what is 'suffering' and the cause of 'suffering'.

Those who understand this, they won't be disturbed by all the impermanent presence and absence of desirable and undesirable happenings in one's life and in the world.

Those who don't know this, they would be determined and disturbed very much by the absence of desirable/agreeable happenings and the presence of undesirable/disagreeable happenings, in one's life and in the world. And there's passionate egoistic aspiration/ambition to 'make', or 'change', or 'influence', or 'control' life and the world to be in certain way that one desires, likes, and agrees with, and one would be disturbed, dissatisfied, disappointed, frustrated, offended, unhappy, angry, hurt, violent, and suffering, if life and the world is not being the way that one would like it to be. This is the evitable mental/emotional gross suffering that is born out of ignorance and egoism, that is truly unnecessary.

Sometimes, the mind is aware of the presence of 'the subtle suffering of constant dissatisfaction/fatigue/the sense of emptiness or meaninglessness', even though everything in life is fine the way that the mind desires, and thus, the mind doesn't really understand what is that all about. It's sort of like a 'subtle constant dissatisfaction/unsettling' that is always there, that the mind might describe as a form of 'hormones imbalanced', 'anxiety', 'void', 'emptiness', or 'meaninglessness'. This is because the mind is being ignorant towards ignorance, where the mind is ignorant towards 'suffering' and the cause of 'suffering'.

The presence of this 'subtle constant dissatisfaction/unsettling' in the minds is natural, and it's actually the subtle suffering of restlessness deriving from the nature of impermanence and selflessness. Because the nature of everything, including the thinking mind and the physical body is undergoing restlessness of ceaseless impermanent and selfless changes, and that there is no 'I' existing in the body and mind, which the ignorant mind might describe as a form of 'constant dissatisfaction', 'hormones imbalanced', 'anxiety', 'void', 'emptiness', or 'meaninglessness'.

This awareness/acknowledgement towards the presence of subtle restlessness deriving from impermanent and selfless changes, indicates that the truth, or the nature of names and forms, including the perceptive thinking mind existing and functioning along with the physical body, is nothing but impermanence and selflessness. The nature of selflessness in all and everything, where there's no existence of 'I' existing in anything to be in control of all the impermanent selfless changes, even though the perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking mind has certain degrees of will-power to be performing or not performing certain action and inaction under certain understanding and non-understanding/desires and don't desires, that activates cause and effect, that bring certain consequences of action and inaction, but the nature of everything is still inevitably bound by impermanence and selflessness. That's why there is this 'subtle constant dissatisfaction' that is there in the mind, but the mind doesn't really understand what it is and why it's there, due to ignorance.

While that certain degrees of awareness and will-power of the perceptive cognitive intellectual assertive thinking mind initiates the yearning for liberation, to be liberated from restlessness, or peacelessness, or the sense of emptiness/meaninglessness, or fatigue, where the mind wants to inquire towards the truth of existence/its own existence and function, by purifying, disciplining, and quieting the modification of the mind, through eliminating the ego and egoism, to get a glimpse of the unconditional peace, of timelessness, birthlessness, deathlessness, oneness, attributelessness, namelessness, and formlessness, which ignites the intense yearning towards attaining Silence, or Samadhi, the complete annihilation of the modification of the mind.

Inquire the truth of everything, including all that is here.

Friday, January 8, 2021

"What is the root cause of suffering?"

Question - "What is the root cause of suffering?"

The rise/presence/existence of this question is exactly the answer to this question.

The minds that doesn't know (presence of ignorance), this question is present/valid/relevant, and suffering exists in them.

The minds that know (void of ignorance), this question is absent/invalid/irrelevant, and suffering doesn't exist in them.

If there's any question arise in the mind, then this mind needs to inquire within, and realizes the answer to any question in the mind, by oneself.

Only the answer/realization that self-realized from within can remove the veil of ignorance in the mind.

Or else, all kinds of information and knowledge that was being learnt, read, heard and accumulated from here and there also cannot remove the veil of ignorance in the mind.

If the mind thinks it has 'the answer' to this question but still perceives suffering, then this mind doesn't really 'know' the answer.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

The suffering minds don't really need love, but Dharma / Dhamma

This teaching isn't opposing 'love' or 'loving kindness' among all and everyone.

It's about how to truly help the suffering minds to be free from suffering efficiently, where they are receiving the gift of Dharma or Dhamma, that allows them to be free from suffering by removing the root cause of suffering, by themselves.

There's no suffering even if 'loving kindness' from some others is not available for some reasons. There is no need to receive 'loving kindness' from anyone, in order to get momentary relief from suffering, as there's no suffering upon the removal of the root cause of suffering. Although there's nothing wrong with 'loving kindness' exists in the world, and it's better than the existence of 'selfishness, anger and hatred' in the world.

By showing loving kindness to the suffering minds will definitely help to relieve certain amount of suffering, but suffering will always be there, if the root cause of suffering is not being removed.

There's nothing bad or wrong to get momentary relief from suffering by receiving loving kindness from some others as well as receiving certain medical treatment that might also give momentary relief from certain suffering, but then, suffering will always be there because the root cause of suffering is still there, if the minds don't know what is the root cause of suffering, and don't know how to be free from the root cause of suffering.

No Guru, or Buddha, or doctor, can remove the root cause of suffering in anyone else, but only by oneself. While the success of those who attempt to remove the root cause of suffering is very much influenced by their own will-power, determination and perseverance.

It's everyone's freedom whether they just want to get some momentary relief from suffering, but suffering is always there, or they want to be free from suffering by knowing what is the root cause of suffering and how to be free from the root cause of suffering.

Those who are interested in realizing and eliminating the root cause of suffering, can take a look these blog posts and see if it can give some reflection to be reflecting upon -

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2018/09/love-upon-realization-of-selflessness.html

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-importance-of-renouncing-worldly.html

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

Inquire towards the teachings of selflessness

Many minds find that the teachings about selflessness is unreachable for them to reflect upon. That is because there is an 'I' being there trying to prove that this 'I' doesn't exist, as well as trying to look for an non-existing 'I' to make it disappear.

Most minds would interpret selflessness as being unselfish, where there is an individual being identifying itself as "I practice selflessness. I am selfless, or I am unselfish."

Minds that haven't realize selflessness would think that selflessness is a form of practice, where they think and believe that everyone should practice selflessness, or be unselfish.

Selflessness is not a practice. It's what all and everything are.

There's no 'I' existing to be identifying as "I am selfless" or "I am unselfish."

One either realizes or doesn't realize selflessness. One doesn't practice or not practice selflessness.

One doesn't practice selflessness and becoming selfless. One just realizes the essence of selflessness in all and everything. Similarly, one doesn't practice compassion and becoming compassionate. One just realizes the essence of compassion in all and everything.

When the mind performs the practice of eliminating the ego, there's not any individual being of 'I' that exists that needs to be eliminated. It's the delusive idea of 'I' or the ego, the assertive function of the thinking mind that identifying as an individual being, deriving from and empowered by ignorance and egoism, that needs to be eliminated from the thinking mind, that allows the mind to see or realize the truth of itself and all and everything that it perceives, which is selflessness.

The perceptive assertive intellectual thinking mind is the one that is performing the yoga practice.

It's not "I am performing the yoga practice," or "I am eliminating myself," or "I realize that I don't exist."

It's the selfless impermanent function of the thinking perceptive mind that is purifying and removing the veil of ignorance and impurities and corrupted thinking, eliminating the ego and egoism, freeing the modification of the mind from the delusive idea of "I am an individual being existing, perceiving this and that, performing action and enjoying the fruit of action, being peaceful or disturbed, who enjoys or suffers."

The function of the mind is the one that perceives all kinds of names and forms through the senses and experiences this restless worldly life existence that is subject to impermanence and selflessness.

The mind that is functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, where there's an assertive discriminative ego and impure intellect, is the one that perceives, analyzes, judges, discriminates and experiences 'pleasantness and unpleasantness', 'happiness and unhappiness', 'enjoyment and suffering', of all kinds of duality, that perceives all sorts of feelings and emotions, that constantly acts and reacts, that has attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, that inspires and aspires, that perceives disturb, dissatisfaction, disappointment, discontentment, greed, lust, hurt, anger, hatred, offensiveness, pride, shame, guilt, regret, fear and worry.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one who likes and dislikes, agrees and disagrees, wants and doesn't want.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that thinks and doesn't think, that knows and doesn't know, that believes and disbelieves, that acts and doesn't act, that enjoys and suffers.

The function of the mind is the one that is awake and asleep, that is dreaming and in deep sleep.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that feels good and bad, that feels positive and negative, that feels meaningful and meaningless, that feels loved and unloved, that feels calmed and disturbed.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that practices or doesn't practice certain social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that perceives and experiences suffering of disturb, hurt, disappointment, painful sorrow, grief, unhappiness, loneliness, meaninglessness and restlessness. The function of the mind without ignorance, egoism, impurities, and the assertive ego and the discriminative intellect under the veil of ignorance and egoism, doesn't perceive suffering.

The suffering disturbed restless mind is the one that has intense yearning for liberation to be liberated from all these ignorance, egoism, restlessness, impurities and suffering.

The mind is the one that is disciplining, purifying and quieting the modification of the mind.

The mind is the one that is inquiring towards the truth of names and forms, especially towards the truth of itself, to know Thyself.

There's no 'I' being existing to negate a non-existing 'I', which doesn't make any sense to the mind. It's like how can we make something that isn't existing to disappear, because it doesn't exist in the first place.

But, it's possible to inquire and realize selflessness once the mind drops off the idea of 'I' that attached and identified and associated with the modification of the mind, which then allows the thinking mind to stand as a third party witness or observer to witness or observe the modification of the mind or all the thoughts activities in the mind.

Then the mind will start to be able to learn, study, and analyze what is going on in the mind under the purified intellect, being free from egoistic likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements under the influence of any particular worldly social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice to judge anything, to know Thyself, as it is, and realizing the truth of all and everything, as they are, which is selflessness, or 'I'lessness, or egolessness, where there isn't an individual being of 'I' existing in all kinds of names and forms, in all living and non-living objects, including the function and modification of the mind.

Upon seeing the truth of impermanence and selflessness within the modification of the mind, as well as in all the names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses, of all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant, agreeable and disagreeable, desirable and undesirable life experiences, the mind is no longer being determined or disturbed by the modification of the mind, or what it used to think is what it is, or itself, or 'I'. The mind is at peace, unconditionally.

Upon the complete annihilation of the thought current or the modification of the mind, or the annihilation of the thinking mind, there's only Silence, or Samadhi, the original state of selfless birthless deathless timeless consciousness. It's not even "My original self of who I really am." but it's merely the selfless essence of all and everything beyond all the names and forms. It is undetermined, undisturbed, uninfluenced, unchanged and uncontaminated by all the impermanent manifestation of dualities, qualities, names and forms, good and evil, enjoyment and suffering, born out of Maya.

As long as there's traces of ignorant egoistic desire of craving, grasping, clinging and longing, the selfless consciousness keeps reflecting the loop of ceaseless births and deaths manifesting in various impermanent and selfless thought currents, forms and identities, that gives rise to the suffering of restlessness in the mind under the veil of ignorance, where all kinds of names and forms of living or non-living objects exist, change and cease existing under the law of nature, cause and effect, even if the selfless consciousness is uncontaminated and unaffected by all these selfless impermanent modification of the mind.

If there's an identification of 'I', or an idea of 'I', or 'the ego' in the thinking mind identifying as an individual being, existing and identifying with the function or the modification of the mind perceiving all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant experiences of desirable and undesirable names and forms through the senses, attaching onto the mortal physical body, the impermanent life existence of this physical body, all the relationships with all and everything, all kinds of worldly possessions, and all kinds of social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice that born out of ignorance and egoism, then it's impossible for this mind to perform self-inquiry to inquire towards the truth of the mind and everything.

The delusive existence of the identity of 'an individual being' in the thinking mind, is due to ignorance.

The delusive existence of an individual being of 'I' in the mind is nothing but a false identity made out of attachment and identification towards the collection of memory deriving from the function of memory remembering bits of the continuous stream of the ceaseless thoughts current (the modification of the mind.)

The mind purification process to remove impurities, the practice of self-restriction or self-control, the quiet/calm state of the mind, and the elimination of egoism of passion, attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation, is the prerequisite that allows self-inquiry to proceed.

Replacing the 'I' with 'The thinking faculty', or 'The thinking mind'.

It's not "I am inquiring towards the teachings of the truth of selflessness, where 'I' doesn't exist," because the mind will be stuck with "Who is this 'I' that is existing here inquiring about something? How can I say I don't exist?"

It's just 'The selfless thinking faculty of the mind' (the selfless projector and the projector screen itself) selflessly reflecting 'The impermanent restless modification of the mind' (the projected impermanent names and forms), and both 'The selfless thinking faculty of the mind' and 'The impermanent restless modification of the mind' are just part of the impermanent manifestation of 'The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind' that is powered and influenced by the energy field, and all are impermanent and selfless. There's no 'I' in all these impermanent and selfless names and forms.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

The minds that hold on strongly onto their existing thinking and belief, may find that this teaching is 'disagreeable' and 'wrong', as it contradicts with the thinking and belief in their minds, that is their freedom of thinking, belief, reaction and judgment.

The minds that are confused, but are aware of ignorance in the mind, and are interested in self-inquiry, can take a look at these blog posts, and see if it can provide some reflection for the mind to reflect upon -

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2020/12/be-open-to-inquire-truth-of-worldly.html

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2020/07/self-inquiry-try-contemplate-upon-what.html 

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2019/05/selflessness.html

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-function-of-memory-and-existence-of.html 

Monday, January 4, 2021

When doubt, confusion, discomfort, disappointment or suffering arise on the path of yoga

Minds that are interested in practicing and realizing yoga, might experience certain discomfort or suffering, disappointment, confusion and doubt from time to time.

There's nothing wrong when the mind experiences great physical/mental/emotional discomfort or suffering, disappointment, or doubt and confusion from time to time due to the intense gross and subtle mind purification process. It doesn't mean that one has not practicing correctly, or one is not heading towards the right direction towards the realization of yoga.

It's whether the minds are endowed with the basic correct understanding towards the modification of the mind, and whether the minds have developed certain degrees of dispassion, non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-comparison and non-expectation, or not, that influencing whether the minds will keep going, or give up, or take a break. There's neither right nor wrong in any approach.

The paths are many, not just the different path of different lineage, but everyone is actually walking their very own path, alone by themselves, as they follow the path of any particular lineage.

All are heading towards yoga, unless the path is not about realizing universal non-discriminative unconditional birthless deathless infinite peace of selflessness, oneness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness.

May it be it's a rather smooth path or a challenging path, a shorter path or a longer path, or even a seemingly infinite restless path that never come to an end, or keep looping on and on, but even so, any path will come to an end, or vanish, upon the annihilation of the mind born out of ignorance, as the Gurus and Buddhas in the past had claimed that anyone can attain liberation, and be free from restlessness, or the loop of restless births and deaths born out of ignorance, as taught in the Scriptures, and hence, the practice is there to lead the aspirants reaching the Self-realization of selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness, upon the annihilation of ignorance.

The smoothness and the length of the path, is very much influenced by the degrees of ignorance, and the process that it takes towards the complete annihilation of ignorance.

Everyone is walking on their own path, alone, as they start walking.

Everyone might or might not cross path with the others at some stage.

Even when one thinks that it is walking on one particular path together with a partner or with a group of many others following the similar path, everyone evolves at their own pace and cause. Some move faster, some move slower, some stop, some take another path, and so on. Even when one thinks that it is carrying another one walking on the path, in one's pace, each will also evolve at their own cause.

Not every disciple of the same Guru of the same lineage will be successfully attain the same realization as the Guru did, or attain the same realization at the same pace and same cause as the Guru did.

No matter how much obstacle, difficulties and challenges that one encounters along the path, and how long the path will take to reach the destination, or how much goodness, joyfulness, thankfulness and meaningfulness that one experiences along the path, whatever happens along the path, it's all subject to impermanence. Everything is still the manifestation of Maya, or ignorance.

If there's passion, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, then the path would appear to be infinite and never reaching the destination.

The higher of the degrees of passion, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, the further the destination appears to be.

The lower of the degrees of passion, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, the closer the destination appears to be.

And the degrees of those defilement might change from time to time, until all are eliminated and the path comes to an end as one arrives at the destination upon the complete annihilation of ignorance.

The path of yoga is not like a road in this world that has a particular shape and length of fixed mileage or km from where one begins moving towards the destination. This path of yoga is always here, as it is, in the present moment where the mind is and how the state of the mind is. One just keeps walking (practicing) until the destination appears as it is (The realization of the truth of selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness, formlessness, birthlessness, deathlessness.) There isn't a path of any particular shape and length in front of where one is, and there isn't a path of a particular shape and length from where one had started until where one is. It is always in the present where one is and how one is.

There's no specific 'direction' of a specific 'place' to reach yoga. One is not going anywhere of any particular direction to find yoga at any particular place somewhere else on the path of yoga. Yoga is always right here, right now, where the mind is. It's just whether the veil of ignorance is present or absent, that determines whether the mind realizes or doesn't realize. How long one has been walking on the path, and whatever one experiences along the path, doesn't determine the realization or non-realization of yoga, but the moment the veil of ignorance vanishes, yoga appears as it is, and it's never separated from all and everything.

The path manifests as it is as one starts walking (as one starts practicing), the path vanishes as the destination appears (as one attains Self-realization). All kinds of practice vanishes upon the attainment of Self-realization. There is no path being manifested if one doesn't practice or stops practice. The path manifests as it is as one begins practice, or resumes practice.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Keep practicing.

Alone you have to fly to the Alone. You are born alone. You will go alone. You will take nothing from this world. O man! your social relationships are only temporary. They are only aids in exhausting certain Karmas, nothing but these.
 
你必须独自飞往单独。你独自而来。也将会是独自而去。你并不会从这个世界上带走些什么。人啊!你所有的社会关系都只不过是暂时性而已。它们只是在帮助我们消耗某些因果业报,只不过是这些而已。
  
  - Swami Sivananda, Essence of Vedanta

Reviews of Yoga Now Malaysia on Trip Advisor

Followers

About Yoga

Know thyself. Everything is impermanent and selfless. There is no 'I'. There is no 'I am selfless'/'I am not selfless'. There is no 'I am hurt'/'I need to be healed from hurt'. Non-blind believing, non-blind following, non-blind practicing and non-blind propagating, but be open-minded to inquire the truth of everything. Be free. Be peaceful. Be happy.

About Meng Foong

My photo
Inquire the truth of everything.

Link to Yoga Now Malaysia website

Link to Yoga Now Malaysia website
Yoga retreats and yoga workshops in Malaysia

Blog Archive

whos.amung.us

visitor maps