The mind that realized and understood towards how to perform all actions, duties and responsibilities, including the yoga and meditation practice, without passionate egoism of attachment, identification, comparison, judgment, craving, aversion, and expectation, regardless of whether the actions are being performed for looking after the selfless impermanent life existence and maintenance of the limited and conditional body and mind of oneself, or actions are being performed for others and the world that doesn't belong to anyone, is a free mind.
Such mind is not being determined or disturbed by the selfless impermanent modification/state of the mind, or the mind perception of names and forms, or the presence and absence of certain names and forms, or upon coming and not coming in contact with certain names and forms, or upon experiencing and not experiencing certain experiences, that appeared to be something pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable, agreeable or disagreeable, comforting or discomforting, and enjoyable or non-enjoyable for the mind.
It has to come from the mind itself to realize and understand what is non-attachment, non-identification, non-comparison, non-judgment, non-craving, non-aversion, and non-expectation.
Some minds never heard about the teachings and practice of non-attachment, non-identification, non-comparison, non-judgment,
non-craving, non-aversion, and non-expectation before, until they came to the yoga class that is about renunciation, dispassion, mental and emotional independence, self-inquiry and self-realization, or the annihilation of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness. Some of the minds that came with certain degrees of openness are interested to learn about all these teachings and practice, and be initiated to integrate these teachings and practice into the different types of physical and mental yoga practice, as well as into everyday life. That is the beginning of their yoga practice.
While some of the minds might not be interested in (or even be intimidated and offended by) these teachings and practice, and they reject all these teachings and practice, and just want to learn and perform all kinds of physical and mental yoga practice for gaining the momentary side-effects of those practice, to be enhancing the physical and mental health and fitness condition, and to be attaining some momentary relaxation, tension relief, rehabilitation, or healing, most probably it's because all these teachings and practice are contradicting with their worldly passionate egoistic thinking, belief, ideas, values, desires, practice, way of living, and way of doing things, as well as the teachings appeared to be 'exposing' or 'pointing out' certain things or the truth/reality that the minds don't want to confront with, that they perceived as something negative, weakness, upsetting, disturbing, hurting, or painful. That's their freedom of thinking, understanding, desire and don't desire, or action and inaction.
Meanwhile, some minds might have heard about these teachings and practice from somewhere, and they might have been practicing and/or teaching certain style of yoga and meditation classes for some time, and they might think and believe that they know all these teachings and practice, however, they might still be determined and disturbed by the selfless impermanent modification/state of the mind, or the mind perception of names and forms, or the presence and absence of certain names and forms, or upon coming and not coming in contact with certain names and forms, or upon experiencing and not experiencing certain experiences, that appeared to be something pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable, agreeable or disagreeable, comforting or discomforting, enjoyable or non-enjoyable, meaningful or meaningless, positive or negative, right or wrong, and good or bad for the mind.
That is because these minds might think that they know, but they don't really know, about what is non-attachment, non-identification, non-comparison, non-judgment,
non-craving, non-aversion, and non-expectation. There is neither right nor wrong. The mind only knows what it knows, and it doesn't know what it doesn't know.
Some minds would strongly think and believe that all these teachings and practice are non-practical, and even impossible, for all 'normal and sane but imperfect' human beings like themselves. That's their freedom of thinking, understanding, desire and don't desire, or action and inaction.
Some minds might have been practicing yoga and meditation for many years and still don't (really) know all that. And it's okay.
None can remove the ignorance in the mind, but the mind itself.
None can make the mind to become dispassionate, to be mentally and emotionally independent, or to be free from passionate egoism, but the mind itself.
That's why the importance of the observation of renunciation and dispassion, or the practice of silence, seclusion and solitude, for a prolonged period of time, especially for the minds that are easily be influenced by all the other minds that they come in contact with, in order to free the mind from continuously be conditioned by worldly passionate egoistic belief, ideas, values, and practice, ceaselessly be influenced by the many passionate egoistic minds, including one's family and friends, that are functioning under the influence of ignorance, passionate egoism, impurities, and restlessness.
Devoid of dispassion, or under the absence of mental and emotional independence, the mind doesn't really know what is compassion, or doesn't even know how to accept and love itself as it is, unconditionally, not to say, to accept and be kind to all the others as they are, even if it thinks and believes that it is a highly compassionate being, or it wants (needs) to be acknowledged as a compassionate human being that is kind and loving towards other living beings and nature. Meanwhile, it wants (or has craving towards) to be acknowledged, recognized, appreciated, agreed with, praised, accepted, loved, understood, empathized, and sympathized by others, in order to feel good and meaningful about itself and life existence.
"I want you to accept and love me as I am," and, "We all are imperfect human beings. I am allowed to feel and behave the way that I am feeling and behaving," but at the same time, "I hate myself. I don't like my body and my mind being the way that it is. I want my body and my mind to be the way that I prefer, like, and desire it to be," and, "I hate all these bad people that have been behaving wrongfully and badly unto me and others."
Such mind doesn't even accept or allow itself being what it is, as it is, and it doesn't accept or allow others being what they are, as they are. It desires and expects itself to be in certain way that it likes and desires, and it desires and expects others to be in certain way, or to treat it in certain way, or to interact with it in certain way that it likes and desires. It always craving for love, attention, support, encouragement, acceptance, agreement, acknowledgement, validation, respect, praise, compliment and glorification from others.
If
the mind knows how to accept and love this selfless body and mind as it
is, this mind will allow all the others whether they will accept and
love this body and mind as it is, or not. It doesn't matter, and it's
okay for this mind even if there is no one else want to accept and love this
mind as it is, because this mind accepts and loves itself as it is. There is no craving or expectation towards receiving acceptance and love from anyone, including one's family, parents, siblings, partner, children, friends, or pets. It doesn't mean that one allows others to treat oneself and others wrongfully and badly, but the mind is not being determined by others' wrongful and bad behavior.
The mind that is dispassionate, it knows what is compassion, where it accepts and be kind to the selfless impermanent body and mind as it is unconditionally, without attachment, identification, comparison, judgment, craving, aversion, or expectation towards the body and mind has to be or not to be in certain way, and it knows how to accept and be kind towards all the others, unconditionally, where it is undetermined or undisturbed by the world being what it is, regardless of the absence and presence of kindness or unkindness, understanding or non-understanding, agreement or disagreement, like or dislike, goodness or badness, selfishness or unselfishness, calmness or restlessness, appropriateness or inappropriateness, appreciation or non-appreciation, praise or condemn, desire or don't desire, action or inaction, and etc, being projected/coming from all the other minds.
Such mind is not being determined by the presence and absence of acknowledgement, recognition, appreciation, agreement, praise, acceptance, love, understanding, empathy, or sympathy from others, to be existing and functioning selflessly in this world as it is, while allowing all these names and forms being there, or not.
There is no "I am proud of myself/you," or "You should be proud of
me/yourself," or "I need to be good enough to be proud of myself and
to make others be proud of me," if the mind knows and understands all
these. There is no superiority/inferiority, pride/shame, low/high self-esteem, envy, admiration, jealousy, guilt, regret, loneliness, or meaninglessness in such mind.
There is no "I want my body and my mind to be like this and not like that."
But just do one's best to be looking after the existence and maintenance of the body and mind, as it is.
There is no "I want the world (our world) to be like this and not like that," or "We all should do something to make the world to be a better place."
But just do one's best to be doing something beneficial for the world, as it is.
What the different minds want and don't want, desire and don't desire, like and dislike, or agree and disagree with, as well as what the different minds think and believe what is a better world or the best world (for each of them), is very different from one another.
Go beyond the sense of goodness and badness, positiveness and negativeness, righteousness and wrongfulness, appropriateness and inappropriateness, joyfulness and joylessness, meaningfulness and meaninglessness, accomplishment and non-accomplishment, success and failure, strength and weakness, wellness and unwellness, stability and uncertainty, and etc. All are selfless and impermanent.
It doesn't mean that the mind is denying all these, but it can be acknowledging the presence and absence of all these names and forms, but at the same time, it knows that all these are selfless and impermanent (both the perceiver and the perceived), and it is not being determined by all that.
"Let go of the past memories and the future imagination. There is neither past nor future. There is only NOW, and it's impermanent. Live in the present moment." - A very simple sentence, but it's the essence of yoga and meditation.
Inquire the truth of everything.
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