The yoga practice to develop correct understanding and self-independence

What type of yoga do you teach, and what do you teach?

This mind doesn't teach specific type of yoga. This mind guides the minds to develop correct understanding and self-independence, being equipped with the essential elements, basic knowledge and skill to be performing self-practice in solitude without the need of attending ongoing yoga classes to be doing some form of yoga practice under the instructions of somebody, to realize the teacher within and become their own teacher to perform self-inquiry, leading towards the thinning out and the annihilation of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, and attaining self-realization towards the truth of names and forms - selflessness and impermanence.

There's no specific brand name, or lineage, or style. All paths and different lineages or styles of practice are not separated or distinct from one another, if the practice is leading the mind towards the annihilation of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, instead of empowering all that.

Who would be learning and practicing yoga to develop correct understanding and self-independence?

For the minds that are completely lost without any awareness towards what is going on in the mind, as they are being over-powered by pride and arrogance, where they are being ignorant towards the presence of ignorance, where they think ignorance doesn't exist in them, while thinking and believing that themselves are somehow more intelligent, knowledgeable, experience and superior than many others, chasing after the gratification of the desires of craving and aversion towards the objects of the senses, that empowers the momentary sense of control, confidence, success, accomplishment, goodness, positiveness, happiness and meaningfulness, where they think they don't need to learn and practice something or do anything to free the mind from ignorance, but somehow, they have the opportunity to come in contact with yoga, and have certain degrees of interest or desire to be learning and practicing yoga, even if it's just for gaining the impermanent benefits for health, fitness and beauty, they can just learn to do some yoga asana, pranayama, meditation or any form of practice under many different brands and styles that they like and prefer, by attending ongoing yoga classes under many brands and styles, until they develop certain degrees of awareness towards the presence of ignorance and restlessness in the mind, or not. There are many yoga and meditation classes in the world to cater for such demand. These minds don't need to learn and practice yoga from this mind, as it would be something very disagreeable, unpleasant, disturbing, offensive, or even extremely painful to them.

For the minds that are lost but not completely, being aware of but not knowing what is really happening in the mind, where they are being aware of the presence of suffering and restlessness, but they are being ignorant towards ignorance and egoism, due to the veil of ignorance and the idea of 'I' occupying the mind, and more importantly, they are being endowed with certain degrees of humility and not being over-powered by pride and arrogance, then they can start with learning some basic yoga asana, pranayama, concentration, relaxation, chanting (sound vibrations), the observation of certain conducive physical and mental activities, and the restraint of certain non-conducive physical and mental activities, as well as basic self-introspection to be observing the selfless impermanent changes in the physical body and in the mind, while incorporating the eradication of egoism and the idea of 'I' into all kinds of actions, connections, interactions, duties and responsibilities in everyday life and in the yoga practice, until they developed the basic awareness towards ignorance and egoism.

For the minds that have certain degrees of awareness towards the presence of ignorance and egoism as well as certain doubt, impurities, suffering and restlessness in the mind, where they are still under the influence and egoism, having certain incorrect understanding and mental/emotional dependency, as they have been being conditioned by certain passionate egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice, and they are still being influenced, determined and disturbed by impurities and restlessness, but somehow, they are being endowed with certain degrees of humility and not being over-powered by pride and arrogance, where they have the initiative or certain degrees of yearning towards attaining the liberation from ignorance, doubt, impurities, suffering and restlessness, they can practice yoga for developing correct understanding and self-independence, by incorporating the eradication of egoism and the idea of 'I' into all kinds of actions, connections, interactions, duties and responsibilities in everyday life and in the yoga practice, and if possible, observing partial or complete renunciation, seclusion, solitude and silence, for a prolonged period, until they developed the correct understanding and self-independence, as well as the important foundation of right discrimination, dispassion, self-control, self-discipline, determination, perseverance, forbearance and the intense yearning towards liberation, that enabling them to realize the one and only teacher within, which is the dispassionate, desireless, disciplined, purified and calmed mind itself, to be performing self-inquiry and mediation towards the attainment of self-realization.

For the minds that have already developed correct understanding and self-independence, where they have the intense yearning towards liberation from ignorance and suffering, where they have firm foundation of self-control and self-discipline, dispassion and right discrimination, desirelessness and contentment, non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-comparison, non-judgment and non-expectation, where they know what is renouncing the fruit of actions, allowing the fruit of actions being what it is, where they have realized the one and only teacher within, where they know how to observe the selfless modifications of the mind, or the mind perception of names and forms arising, changing, and passing away, without attachment or identification, without craving or aversion, without judgment or expectation, without being determined or disturbed by all that, where they know how to perform self-inquiry towards the truth of names and forms under a dispassionate, desireless, disciplined, purified and calmed mind, continuously thinning out the veil of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, where the mind is resting in unconditional peace without attachment, identification or clinging towards the peaceful state of mind, being uninfluenced, undetermined or undisturbed by all kinds of ignorance and suffering in the world of passionate egoistic beliefs, values, practices, affairs, interactions, activities, ties and connections, and they just need to keep practicing and keep inquiring, keep evolving towards the complete annihilation of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, void of any doubt and fear, they don't need to learn any particular type of yoga from anyone, or they don't need to practice particular type of yoga under certain instructions or guidance from anyone.

The minds that had attained self-realization, they don't need to practice yoga at all.

What is the awareness towards the ignorance, doubt, suffering and restlessness?

When the mind is aware of itself has certain doubt, or ignorance, or confusion towards certain thing or many things, being aware of itself not knowing the truth of certain thing or many things, and it has the initiative to be free from all doubts, ignorance and confusion.

When the mind is aware of itself is under a state of doubt, disturbance, dissatisfaction, disappointment, fear, worry, anxiety, painful sorrow, hurt, suffering and restlessness, where it is being aware of itself would like to be free from all that, but somehow, it doesn't know how, and it has the initiative to be looking for a way to be free from all that.

What is egoism?

There is an idea of 'I' existing in the selfless perceptive cognitive intellectual thinking mind that is functioning under the veil of ignorance, unwittingly and ceaselessly generates attachment and identification towards the selfless impermanent qualities of names and forms, as 'I' and 'not I', or this is 'I' and that is not 'I', it is other. Under the veil of ignorance and the idea of 'I', the mind thinks and believes that it has a permanent continuous existence of an individual self identity, that itself is existing permanently and independently, that is permanently under going ceaseless loop of births and deaths, either enjoying or suffering, or both.

There is autonomous comparison and judgment towards all kinds of names and forms based on certain existing thinking, belief, values, practice and desire in the mind conditioning and influencing the intellectual reasoning power to reason, analyze, understand, compare and judge everything in certain way, that give rise to likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, desire and don't desire.

There's desire of craving and aversion towards the selfless impermanent names and forms of conditions, situations, ties and connections, relationships, interactions, experiences, sights, sounds, smells, tastes, sensations, feelings, emotions, thoughts, memories and imaginations, that are pleasant or unpleasant, agreeable or disagreeable, desirable and undesirable to the mind.

There's expectation/anticipation/desire/intention/longing or the urge to control towards all and everything to be or not to be in certain way, according to one's desire of craving and aversion.

Egoism give rise to possessiveness, separateness, discrimination, individual and group identity(s), the sense of belonging, origin, self-esteem, self-worth, superiority and inferiority, goodness and badness, righteousness and wrongfulness, positiveness and negativeness, meaningfulness and meaninglessness, success and failure, accomplishment and non-accomplishment, pride, shame, animosity, hostility, offensiveness, defensiveness, jealousy, admiration, attraction, repulsion, disappointment, hurt, frustration, irritation, anger, hatred, resentment, vengeance, dissatisfaction, discontentment, greed, guilt, regret, grief, sorrow, fear and worry, and so on.

And hence, the mind is in a state of unrest, disharmony, violence, disturbance or suffering, unwittingly swaying restlessly between satisfaction and dissatisfaction, happiness and unhappiness, joyfulness and painful sorrow, and so on. If without awareness, non-attachment, non-identification and self-control, the disturbed suffering states of the mind is being projected or reflected externally through the organs of action and speech, of random behaviors, actions and reactions.

Egoism derived from ignorance and feeds ignorance. Impurities derived from ignorance and egoism, and feed ignorance and egoism. Restlessness derived from ignorance, egoism and impurities, and feed ignorance, egoism and impurities. Suffering derived from ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, and feed ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness. The good news is that, all these names and forms are limited and conditional, it's changeable and impermanent, and it can be eradicated, if there's a will and determination. To end this loop that keeps feeding one another, is to remove the veil of ignorance. To remove the veil of ignorance, is to stop feeding the ignorance. To stop feeding the ignorance, is to weaken or thin out and eventually eradicate restlessness, impurities and egoism, or the idea of 'I'.

How to deal with the ignorance in the world and not to be determined or disturbed by it?

Ignorance in the world is like a thick concrete wall. It is just being what it is, and it's everywhere. One can only try to be aware of the presence of the thick concrete walls in the surrounding, and avoid running into any of the thick concrete walls to avoid unnecessary painful injury or damage in oneself. One cannot blame the thick concrete wall, if oneself is suffering from certain painful injury or damage deriving from oneself either carelessly, or accidentally, or deliberately run into one of the thick concrete walls, as the concrete wall is just being there, and being what it is.

Even if a thick concrete wall is somehow falling down towards the direction of oneself, and one can try one's best to move away as fast as possible to avoid from being crushed by that, but if somehow, one couldn't manage to move away fast enough, and be hurt by the fallen thick concrete wall, one couldn't blame the thick concrete wall for inflicting the painful injury or damage onto oneself. And if, one is being angry with the thick concrete wall, and starting to be arguing with, shouting, kicking and punching at the thick concrete wall, it will only be generating further painful injury or damage to oneself, and it doesn't change the thick concrete wall being what it is.

The entire world is full of such thick concrete walls everywhere. It's not even about moving all the thick concrete walls out of this space, as it would be easier and less effort to move oneself out of the space full of concrete walls, but then no matter where one goes in this world of ignorance, there are always thick concrete walls everywhere. And hence, one can just be aware of not running into any thick concrete walls that are there being what they are, and avoid being crushed by the falling thick concrete walls.

The thick concrete walls are not aware of themselves being what they are, or most minds are not aware of the damaging ignorance in themselves.

The difference between the thick concrete walls and the minds is that, anyone also can transform the concrete walls into something else, into something useful, but the minds need to be self-aware and self-initiated to transform themselves, while the damaging effects into the surrounding deriving from the minds under the influence of ignorance are much greater than the damaging effects deriving from the thick concrete walls being what they are.

What is self-inquiry?

Under an open mind, without blind-believing, blind-following, blind-agreeing/disagreeing, blind-practicing, blind-propagating towards all the existing thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind, and all kinds of names and forms that the mind comes in contact with, as well as all the teachings and practice of yoga and/or buddhism, without being conditioned or limited by any particular belief, teachings, philosophies, values and practice, to be inquiring towards the truth of everything, of selflessness and impermanence, as well as towards the selfless restless impermanent limited and conditional function and modification of the selfless mind, or what is the 'I' that the selfless mind thinks, believes and identifies as a permanent and independent individual self existence or self identity, and attained direct realization towards the truth of everything, towards selflessness and impermanence, under a dispassionate, desireless, disciplined, purified and quiet mind.

Inquire the truth of everything.