Be free from attachment and craving towards love and acknowledgement

Many unnecessary sufferings in the world are due to the minds are not free from the passionate egoistic attachment towards love and kindness, there’s desire of craving towards receiving love and kindness from others, or longing to be loved and acknowledged by others, or there’s expectation towards how all and everyone should and shouldn’t act and react and feel.

Many minds think and believe and propagate that all and everyone, including plants and objects, deserve and need love, or be loved by some others, or else, it’s bad, wrong, terrible, sorrowful, pitiful, joyless, meaningless and suffering, if without love.

That is everyone’s freedom of thinking and belief, desire, action and reaction, however, it doesn’t free the mind from perceiving suffering. The mind is still being conditioned by duality and the passionate egoistic attachment towards what the mind thinks and believes is love, good, right, positive, joyful and meaningful.

There is nothing wrong, and it’s very good about the presence of loving kindness among one another in the world of diversity where many minds are under the influence of ignorance and egoism. It’s better than the presence of hatred and cruelty among one another. But this loving kindness that is unconditional and non-discriminating, is beyond personal passionate feeling of love and affection that is conditional and discriminating.

The minds are not free from suffering under such thinking and belief, or understanding about all and everyone deserve and need love, regardless of whether it’s the presence of the personal passionate feeling of love and affection, or the unconditional non-discriminating loving kindness. By receiving love and kindness from others can only give certain degrees of momentary sense of happiness and meaningfulness, or momentary relief from what the minds think and believe as unhappiness, meaninglessness, or suffering, but it doesn’t free the minds from the root cause of unhappiness, meaninglessness, or suffering.

Treating or looking after all and everything with care and appreciation might can help to maintain or prolong their good condition up to certain degrees, but still, all are impermanent. Caring and appreciative towards all and everything doesn’t have to be related to passionate feeling of love and affection. One doesn’t need to have passionate feeling of love and affection, or attachment, towards certain things in order to show care and appreciation towards them, while respecting all and everything are impermanent. There’s no disappointment, painful sorrow, unhappiness, meaninglessness or suffering arise upon impermanent changes.

If the minds are being conditioned by the thinking and belief that all and everything need and deserve love and kindness from others, and are craving for love and to be loved by some others, while expecting all and everyone should show love and kindness towards all and everyone, or shouldn’t be unloving and unkind, regardless of whether they are the family, parents, siblings, friends, partners, children, or the communities in the world, they will be suffering upon thinking that they are not loved by others, or those whom they want and expect them to love and be kind to them, but they don’t love or be kind to them, or expecting that all and everyone should be loving and kind to one another, but they don’t.

The minds are craving for love and to be loved by some others, and have expectation towards how others should and shouldn’t act and react and feel, is merely because they are under the influence of ignorance and egoism.

What all and everyone truly need, for peace in oneself and in the world, is to be free from ignorance and egoism.

If the minds are free from ignorance and egoism, they will realize selfless compassion.

Once they realized selfless compassion, they will understand.

It’s everyone’s freedom for how they think, act and react and feel, of whether they love others and want to be kind to others, or not.

They don’t need to please or impress anyone in order to attain love and affection, or acknowledgement and validation from others.

They don’t need others to love or be kind to them.

They don’t need family, parents, siblings, friends, teachers, students, partners, children, communities, animals, plants, nature, objects, or the universe, to love them, or more precisely, to love them in the way that they think how it should be.

They don’t need to be loved by anyone.

They don’t need love and affection.

They don’t need acknowledgement and validation.

None can help or make them to realize that, but the mind itself.

Once they realized that, once they understood that, they are free.

They will never feel lonely.

They will never feel unloved.

They will never feel intimidated.

They will never feel hurt or disappointed.

They can love or don’t love anyone.

They can be kind to everyone, if they want.

They can appreciate the presence of love and kindness from others unto them, but they don’t need anyone to love and be kind to them, and they don’t expect all and everyone should be loving and kind, or shouldn’t be unloving and unkind.

They will allow and respect everyone whether they want to love and be kind to others, or not, even though they might not agree with, encourage, or support unloving and unkind behaviors in the world.

If they are suffering, it’s not because others don’t love them, or don’t want to love them, or some others are being unloving and unkind to them or others.

They are suffering, is because they don’t allow everyone being what and how they are, whether they love others or want to be kind to others, or not.

They are suffering, is because they want to be loved and acknowledged by others, there’s craving and expectation towards receiving love and acknowledgement from others, and there’s expectation towards how everyone should and shouldn’t behave, but that desire of craving and expectation is not being gratified.

And hence,

How to be free from such unnecessary suffering deriving from ignorance and egoism?

Just let go the passionate egoistic thinking and belief that is conditioning how the mind understands and judges everything, influencing how it acts and reacts and feels, and how it expects others about how everyone should act and react and feel.

No doubt that for promoting peace and harmony among all and everything, none should be unloving or unkind towards anyone or anything, however, it’s everyone’s freedom, whether they want to be loving and kind to others, or not, even if they are one’s family, parents, siblings, friends, partners, children, or community.

There's nothing wrong with the minds don't feel love towards certain names and forms that they dislike and disagree with. It's okay if the mind doesn't want to love someone or something, with or without any reason. The mind might not love, like and agree with everything, but it doesn't necessarily has to be hating or being cruel towards something that it doesn't love, doesn't like, or doesn't agree with. The mind that would react with hatred and cruelty towards something that it doesn't love, doesn't like or doesn't agree with, is ill, or corrupted.

It is everyone’s freedom for being ignorant and egoistic, or not.

It is everyone’s freedom if they feel lonely, unloved, intimidated, disappointed, hurt, joyless, sorrow, or meaningless.

It is also everyone’s freedom whether they want to be free from the unnecessary suffering deriving from ignorance and egoism, or not, and whether they want to let go, or not.

The minds that are free from ignorance and egoism, they are peaceful and free as they are, regardless of whether they have many friends, or have very few friends, or have no friend at all, to play with, interact with and share with, and whether their family/parents/siblings/friends are being loving and kind to them, or not. They allow everyone and everything to come and go as they are. The sense of loneliness, hurt, guilt, regret, sorrow, fear and meaninglessness doesn't exist in such minds.

Be free.

The sense of pride and shame exists for one another

Under the veil of ignorance and egoism, based on certain worldly passionate egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice, the mind thinks, believes, judges and feels towards certain qualities, possessions and identities as either 'pride deserving' or 'shame deserving'.

The mind that is free from ignorance and egoism, there's no such thinking, belief, judgment and feeling towards any qualities of names and forms.

Most of the social cultural or religious teachings, beliefs, values and practice in the world deriving from the minds under the veil of ignorance and egoism, is about human beings and their behaviors need to be controlled or regulated by the sense of pride towards the presence of certain 'pride deserving' qualities, possessions and identities or upon the absence of certain 'shame deserving' qualities, possessions and identities, as well as the sense of shame towards the presence of certain 'shame deserving' qualities, possessions and identities or upon the absence of certain 'pride deserving' qualities, possessions and identities.

Many minds have great difficulty towards understanding that they don't need to be conditioned by the sense of pride and shame at all. None need to be 'good' or 'good enough', where they need to have many 'pride deserving' qualities, possessions and identities, and don't have any 'shame deserving' qualities, possessions or identities, either coming from one's own expectation and judgment towards oneself and others, or coming from others' expectation and judgment towards oneself and others.

People would think and believe that the sense of shame will stop human beings from having something and behaving in the way that is 'shame deserving' according to their particular thinking, belief, values and practice. Not really.

People would think and believe that the sense of pride will motivate human beings for achieving something and behaving in the way that is 'pride deserving' according to their particular thinking, belief, values and practice. Not really.

More importantly, is that what certain thinking, belief, values and practice judging and labeling as 'pride deserving' are not necessarily something beneficial for the over-all well-being of all and everyone non-discriminatively. While what certain thinking, belief, values and practice judging and labeling as 'shame deserving' are not necessarily something bad or wrong at all.

Meanwhile the sense of pride and shame is hindering or even destroying the mental clarity and correct understanding, where many people are suffering from certain degrees of mental illness or having issue with self-esteem that affect their interactions and relationships with others, as well as gives rise to the existence of discrimination and hatred in the world, due to the sense of pride and shame. People are hurting themselves and/or others violently and cruelly because of that. The minds are not free, being conditioned by feeling good or bad about oneself and/or others, which doesn't help oneself to evolve towards liberation from ignorance and egoism, or doesn't help the world to be a better place, even when oneself tries to do good and be good (enough), according to certain worldly thinking, belief, values and practice, being influenced by the sense of pride and shame.

Without the sense of pride, there's no sense of shame, and vice versa.

The sense of pride is the shadow of the sense of shame, and vice versa.

The mind that is being conditioned by the sense of pride and shame will also be perceiving and judging all and everything under the perspective conditioned by that sense of pride and shame.

It's the presence or absence of ignorance and egoism in the minds, that is influencing the thinking, desires, intentions, actions and behaviors of human beings.

Without the sense of pride and shame, it doesn't mean that one will be performing action or inaction that will be harming oneself and/or others, or won't be performing action or inaction that will be benefiting the over-all well-being of all and everyone, non-discriminatively and unconditionally.

If one really wants to help the world to be a better place, for now, and for the next generations, then one must be free from the sense of pride and shame, as well as stop instilling and empowering the sense of pride and shame in the younger generations, so that they don't grow up keep hurting themselves and/or others out of the sense of pride and shame.

Once the mind is free from the sense of pride and shame, all the other sense of goodness/badness, positiveness/negativeness, righteousness/wrongfulness, meaningfulness/meaninglessness, or joyfulness/sorrowfulness, will also drop off from the mind. All kinds of craving and aversion also will drop off. All kinds of suffering deriving from the perception of duality or the sense of separateness will also drop off. That's liberation.

Inquire the truth of everything.

The minds that would be offended by this teaching, or judging this teaching as something 'wrong' or 'negative', as it is contradicting with their particular social cultural or religious thinking, belief, values and practice, where they strongly believe in humans need to be controlled under the sense of shame and one should be receiving condemn and painful punishment for something shameful, that's their freedom of thinking and reaction. They don't have to practice yoga.

For sincere yoga practitioners, this is one of the subjects for self-inquiry, especially for the minds that still have many doubts, that are still being determined and disturbed by the mind perception of selfless impermanent qualities of names and forms unwittingly, even after many years of performing some kind of yoga and meditation practice regularly, or trying to live a life of positive thinking, pure intention, good conduct, healthy living and clean eating.

Transcending duality

Upon the absence of ignorance, egoism and impurities in the minds, all kinds of perceived names and forms (selfless and impermanent), or experiences (desirable or undesirable/pleasant or unpleasant), or actions and the fruit of actions (success or failure/fruitful or fruitless/agreeable or disagreeable), are just what they are, or everything is neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither meaningful nor meaningless.

It depends on the different states of the different minds, functioning under the presence of the different degrees of ignorance, egoism and impurities, of the different intention, desire and expectation, under the influence of different thinking, belief, values and practice, that are determining how the impure egoistic minds react towards all kinds of perceived names and forms, that gives rise to either the sense of goodness or badness, positiveness or negativeness, and meaningfulness or meaninglessness, deriving from how the minds react, compare, judge, desire or expect towards the different names and forms, or the different experiences, or the different actions and the fruit of actions.

As long as the mind still thinks and believes that 'This' is good, positive and meaningful, because it is agreeable, desirable and pleasant to this mind, or 'That' is bad, negative and meaningless, because it is disagreeable, undesirable and unpleasant to this mind, or the mind tries to project the quality of 'goodness', 'positiveness' and 'meaningfulness' in all kinds of names and forms, by thinking and believing that all and everything is 'good', 'positive' and 'meaningful', that there is nothing 'bad', 'negative' and 'meaningless', then this mind is not free, even if all and everything appeared to be 'good', 'positive' and 'meaningful' for this mind, in this moment.

Life existence that is selfless and impermanent, that is limited and conditioned by time, space and causation, is just what it is. Life is neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither meaningful nor meaningless. Trying to find 'goodness', 'positiveness' or 'meaningfulness' in life existence that is selfless and impermanent, while restlessly trying to perform and accomplish certain actions and fruit of actions in order to be developing, maintaining and empowering the sense of goodness, positiveness and meaningfulness that is impermanent, it's not freedom at all.

Keep practicing, or in other terms, keep letting go egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation, until the mind transcends duality, realizing everything is just what it is, that all are neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither meaningful nor meaningless. This mind won't be determined or disturbed by the selfless impermanent changes in all kinds of names and forms, regardless of whether they are agreeable or disagreeable, desirable or undesirable, pleasant or unpleasant. This mind is free from the desire of craving (towards names and forms that give rise to the sense of goodness, positiveness and meaningfulness) and aversion (towards names and forms that give rise to the sense of badness, negativeness and meaninglessness.) That is liberation.

The minds that are free, can be performing many selfless actions in the world that might or might not help the world to have less unnecessary human made problems and suffering out of ignorance and egoism, without being disturbed or determined by all kinds of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance in the world.

Many of the powerful/wealthy human beings in the world that built their power/wealth/security/pride/comfort/enjoyment by exploiting nature, natural resources, advance science and technology, human beings, animals and all kinds of objects/affairs/desperation/fear/suffering might be free from many kinds of limitation or restriction while existing and living in this world due to their status of power and wealth, however, these minds are nothing but the slaves of ignorance and egoism, as if these minds are free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, of limitless greed, desire and pride, there won't be any exploitation towards anyone or anything, building one's power and wealth out of the suffering and limitation of many others in the world, in the first place. It's incredible and yet unfortunate that many young people are being encouraged to be admiring towards and be inspired by such 'human beings'.

Like everything else, power and wealth are neither good nor bad. It can be used to perform wise and compassionate actions that benefits the world in certain way, or it can be used to perform intentional and unintentional actions that cause many suffering and destruction in the world. It's about the absence or presence of ignorance and egoism.

'Studying hard, in order to be working hard, in order to become one of those powerful and wealthy human beings in the world by exploiting all and everything to the maximum', it's not success at all.

It's somewhat true that, if without 'exploiting' something/someone or everything/everyone, either directly or indirectly, to gain maximum profits in this world, none can become 'wealthy' or 'super wealthy', however, there's nothing wrong about 'not being wealthy', or more so, 'not being super wealthy'. Capable of enduring hardships or simplicity, refraining from harming/exploiting anyone and anything in order to become 'wealthy' or 'super wealthy', while being free from craving towards 'the luxurious life of unlimited comfort and enjoyment way of living being served by others' and being free from fear or aversion towards 'the modest simple life of limited comfort and enjoyment way of living', or even 'self-reliant way of living with certain hardships', is indeed the real form of 'successful human beings' in the world. Such 'rare' human beings should be the ones being admired by the young people, if people really want the world to be a better place for all and everyone non-discriminatively.

This is nothing to do with the different types of religion, spirituality or morality beliefs and teachings, that meant to be oppressing and controlling everyone to believe in certain beliefs and to behave in certain way. It's merely basic common sense of humanity. One doesn't need to be believing in and following any particular religious, spiritual or moral beliefs and teachings, for being capable to forbear hardships, not being greedy, and not harming/exploiting/taking advantage of someone or something in order to gain maximum profits to become 'wealthy' or 'super wealthy'.

Inquire the truth of everything.

The power of ignorance

Even the highly intelligent, educated, talented, experienced, knowledgeable, loving and sympathetic human minds might be functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, dualism and separateness, the idea of 'I' and 'my', the sense of accomplishment and the sense of belonging, while thinking and believing that oneself is free from ignorance, or somehow less ignorant than the others, while perceiving the suffering of selfless impermanent changes, being determined by the absence and presence of pleasant/unpleasant, desirable/undesirable and agreeable/disagreeable names and forms.

Self-Inquiry - Try contemplate upon "What is this (I)?" instead of "Who am I?"

For those who are interested in the teaching and practice of Yoga or Buddhism, the main similar practice is about self-inquiry, to inquire the truth of individual being existence by contemplating upon "Who am I?", where most people interpreting as "Knowing who we really are, or who is the real 'I'."

Because of the literal meaning of the words being used in the question of "Who am I?" regardless of being translated into whatever languages, the mind takes it as there is a permanent self-existence (of who I really am) undergoing the process of reincarnation of being born in countless different life existence/transformation existing as different individual being under different names and forms, and I am trying to filter and drop off all kinds of imperfect momentary identity of different names and forms in order to uncover and reconnect with my real identity of who I really am, where many minds believe and desire that "who I really am" or "the real I" is something 'spiritual', 'pure' and 'perfect' that is imperishable, indestructible, unchangeable, permanent, absolute and infinite, with some kind of 'transcendental superpower' where all kinds of 'miracles' happen under my command/wish, having all my desired imaginations/wishes come true, where everything will be exactly the way as I wish, with absolute unlimited freedom to be whatever I want to be, being with those who I want to be with, go wherever I want to go and do whatever I want to do, where there's no limitation of hunger, thirst, old age, weakness, injury, sickness, death or suffering, but only desirable pleasant enjoyment.

And hence, the mind is 'stuck', couldn't go beyond what it thinks it knows, where the mind is unable to transcend the selfless modification of the mind perceiving all kinds of names and forms of a worldly life existence, couldn't go beyond the idea of 'I', where the mind thinks and believes 'I' exists as an individual being, hoping/desiring to have better transformation in better world, hindering the mind from self-realization, to realize selflessness, or 'I'lessness, or egolessness, to be free from the ego, or the idea of I of the existence of an individual being existing and experiencing (different) life existence or impermanent transformation.

Self-inquiry is more about contemplation upon "What is this 'I' that 'I' think and believe as an individual being existing and experiencing a worldly life existence that is comprised of all kinds of duality, where (I think) I experience desirable and undesirable experiences, where (I think) I feel happy/satisfied and unhappy/dissatisfied, where (I think) I try to learn many things to be able to survive and satisfy my desire of craving and aversion, to find and achieve the meaning of my life existence, to set goals/directions for my life, where (I think) I was born, where (I think) I live a life, where (I think) I have many different kinds of happy/unhappy relationship with different individual beings, where (I think) I enjoy and suffer, where (I think) I will die, and where (I think) I will be transforming into another name and form either in the same world or in a different world according to the good/bad deeds that I have been doing and accumulating."

If the mind replaces the inquiry of "Who am I?" with "What is this 'I' that 'I' think is 'me' or 'myself', whom 'I' think and believe is existing as an individual being experiencing this life existence of happiness and unhappiness, who is doing all these thinking, who performs actions and enjoying the fruit of actions?", then this will allow the mind to 'look at' or investigate 'itself' from a different perspective, sort of like a (non-existent) third party to investigate/inquire the modification of the mind, or what the ignorant egoistic mind thinks and believes is the existence of an individual being perceiving/experiencing this and that, and without attachment and identification towards the selfless and impermanent modification of the mind perceiving names and forms of a worldly life existence, and be able to eliminate the ego/the idea of 'I' and egoism, where the mind can be free from the idea of 'I' and egoism, and absorbed into Silence/Samadhi (The annihilation of the modification of mind), transcending names and forms, births and deaths, actions and the fruit of actions, enjoyment and suffering.

There's no 'I' existing. There's no 'I' am selfless, or I am performing selfless actions. There's no 'I' am selfish or unselfish. There's no 'I' am good or bad. There's no 'I' am transforming into this or that. There's no 'I' am enjoying or suffering.

The mind (or the thinking faculty as part of the function of this physical body,) is functioning and perceiving all kinds of names and forms in this present moment, restlessly acting and reacting, generating ceaseless actions that bring along pleasant/unpleasant consequences of actions, and that's all. The modification of the mind, or the thought currents, or the thought activities, ceaselessly arising and passing away selflessly, countless births and deaths of different 'states of mind/worlds' happening, in this present moment. Neither it's 'I' nor there's 'I'. There's neither past nor future. There's neither performer of actions nor the enjoyer of the fruit of actions.

Contemplate upon the teaching of "The world of names and forms is the by-product of the modification of mind. There is no perception of the world or life existence (in Silence/Samadhi/Annihilation of the modification of mind)", along with the process of performing self-inquiry.

Fearlessness and desirelessness are 'the two sides of a coin'. Similarly, selflessness/oneness/non-separateness/attributelessness/namelessness/formlessness/birthlessness/deathlessness and fearlessness/desirelessness are 'the two sides of a coin'.

As long as there is still the ego, or the idea of 'I' exists along with the modification of the mind, there's ceaseless births and deaths (in this present), there's an 'individual being' existing and experiencing the world of a worldly life existence being satisfied or dissatisfied about this or that, there's egoism of attachment/identification/craving and aversion/judgment/comparison/expectation, there's survival instinct, there's separateness, there's desire and fear, there's possessiveness and protectiveness, there's ceaseless actions and the fruit of actions, which gives rise to endless births and deaths (in this present) within the modification of the mind.

As Swami Sivananda mentioned in his teachings, "Kill the mind," or in another term, "Annihilate the modification of the mind," if the mind thinks the word 'Kill' is inappropriately used as the mind believes it's representing the quality of violence, non-compassionate, unkind, unloving, negative, bad and wrong. This is nothing to do with 'killing', 'changing', 'controlling', 'over-powering', 'influencing', 'uplifting' or 'inspiring' other minds. It's about this mind silencing its own modification, attaining Silence/Samadhi.

Neither right nor wrong

Most people think, react and behave in certain ways that conform to the way of thinking, reaction and behavior of the majority of the society, and naturally there will be egoistic judgment and expectation towards how all the others should or shouldn't think, react and behave in certain ways in accordance to their way of thinking, reaction and behavior that they think and believe as 'right' or 'wrong', 'good' or 'bad', 'positive' or 'negative', 'healthy' or 'unhealthy', 'appropriate' or 'inappropriate', 'normal' or 'abnormal', 'sane' or 'insane'. Anything that are contradicting and are different from their own way of thinking, reaction and behavior, would be categorized as 'wrong', 'bad', 'negative', 'inappropriate', 'unhealthy', 'abnormal', or 'insane'. What is contradicting with what the impure egoistic minds think and believe as 'humanity' is being understood as 'inhumanity'. There are lots of discussions, debates, arguments and conflicts exist due to the strong attachment towards the mind perception of duality under the influence of ignorance and egoism that based on particular way of thinking, reaction and behavior that is agreeable to the majority of the society.

Yoga practice is about changing such egoistic thinking pattern of the impure egoistic mind and allowing the mind to see things as they are, to free the mind from egoistic judgment or expectation towards all the different ways of thinking, reaction and behavior to be or not to be in certain way.

Upon coming in contact with the 'death' of someone or something, most minds would react and feel sad and grieve/mourn, and would criticize or condemn certain minds that don't react in such way, where they don't feel sad nor grieve/mourn towards the 'death' of someone or something (that most minds think and believe as something good and is dear to them), as a form of 'wrongful'/'bad'/'inappropriate'/'negative'/'unhealthy'/'abnormal'/'insane' way of thinking, reaction and behavior. Meanwhile, these impure egoistic minds would feel glad and cheer towards the 'death' or 'destruction' of someone or something that they think and believe as something bad and is hated by them.

And that's everyone's freedom for how they think, feel, react, judge and expect.

For the yoga practitioners, it's all about the elimination of ignorance and egoism, by freeing the mind from such worldly egoistic thinking pattern of the mind.

How the minds perceive and judge towards everything is based on what the minds know and understand, and what the impure egoistic minds know and understand is very limited and conditioned under the influence of ignorance and egoism, even if the minds are highly educated and knowledgeable.

People who might be highly educated and knowledgeable could be thinking and believing that, "The minority must respect and conform to the idea and wish of the majority." and constantly be offended and hurt by something that the mind dislikes and disagrees with.

The selfless yogis, or the wise ones, or the dispassionate ones, neither grieve/mourn towards the 'death' nor cheer/celebrate towards the 'birth' of 'the good and dearest ones'. Neither will they cheer towards the 'death' nor grieve/mourn towards the 'birth' of 'the bad and hated ones'. It's not that they are emotion-less, or heart-less, or depressing, abnormal or insane, it's just that they perceive and understand everything differently from the majority of the society, being aware of the truth of names and forms and transcending all the qualities of names and forms that are subject to cause and effect, impermanence and selflessness. The thinking, reaction and behavior pattern of these minds towards the perception/experience of all kinds of names and forms or the pleasant/unpleasant experiences has transcended the perception and understanding of the impure egoistic minds, where they don't think, react or behave like the majority of the society.

Whenever the mind thinks and judges, "Oh, this person thinks, reacts and behaves in the way that is so wrong, bad, negative, inappropriate, abnormal, unhealthy or insane. Obviously this person doesn't know or understand how to think, react or behave in the way that is right, good, positive, appropriate, normal, healthy and sane." then know that most probably it's actually 'this mind that thinks and judges in such way' that doesn't know/understand or is being ignorant towards something that is beyond what this mind knows and understands.

Know this mind. Know Thyself.

It's merely different ways of thinking, reaction and behavior under different states of the mind that is subject to cause and effect, impermanence and selflessness, that is either under the influence of ignorance and egoism, or not.

If the mind cannot go beyond the duality of right and wrong, good and bad, positive and negative, and so on, then even though one has been practicing and teaching yoga for many years, this mind is not free.

Contemplate, reflect, realize.

Positive thinking is not freedom

Just as drugs or medicines are useless to those who are free from physical or mental illness, positive thinking is irrelevant to the mind that is free from ignorance and egoism.

Positive thinking is one of the yoga practice to counter negative thinking, but it's not the goal of the yoga practice, as if the mind needs to be thinking in the positive way, to be positive and stay positive, it means that the mind is still not free from being determined by the mind perception of duality under the influence of ignorance.

The mind that is free, perceives all the names and forms as they are, or sees things as they are. Everything is just what it is, neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative. This mind doesn't need to think positively. It doesn't need to practice positive thinking to counter negative thinking as there is no negative thinking. All forms of yoga practice exist as different tools for the ignorant egoistic mind to be free from ignorance and egoism. Any form of yoga practice is useless to the mind that is free from ignorance.

The mind is not free, is due to it is still perceiving all the names and forms under the influence of ignorance and egoism perceiving duality of good and bad, positive and negative, and the mind is being determined by duality, where there's craving/clinging towards the mind perception of the quality of good and positive, and aversion towards the mind perception of the quality of bad and negative, then this mind can practice positive thinking or correct understanding to counter so called negative thinking, or more precisely, ignorant egoistic thinking or corrupted understanding in the mind.

It's like drugs or medicines to counter certain physical or mental illness, positive thinking is just a tool to counter negative/ignorant thinking. It's not freedom if one needs to depend on drugs or medicines all the time, similarly it's not freedom if the mind needs to rely on positive thinking as the mind is still not free from the influence of ignorance and egoism.

Be free.

Purifying, calming and quieting the restless mind efficiently

All the different forms of external yoga practice must be accompanied by the internal yoga practice of annihilating egoism of attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, supported by the internal mental strength, flexibility and stamina of patience, perseverance, determination, tolerance, forbearance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation, as well as cultivating the essential tools for self-inquiry and self-realization, such as awareness, dispassion, desireless, renunciation, self-discipline, self-reliance, seclusion, solitude, care-free, fearlessness and equanimity, to be efficiently purifying, calming and quieting the impure egoistic restless mind, to prepare the mind for spontaneous meditation into Silence (complete annihilation of the mind/birthlessness and deathlessness/attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness/oneness or non-separateness).

Even if one's physical body is unable to perform any external yoga practice, it doesn't stop the mind from performing internal yoga practice to annihilate egoism, impurities and restlessness, and be free.

Without the internal yoga practice of annihilating egoism and impurities which is nothing to do with the impermanent and selfless physical and mental condition, ability and limitation, the mind will always be disturbed by the mind perception of names and forms of all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant, desirable and undesirable, agreeable and disagreeable life experiences, where there's clinging and craving towards pleasant/desirable/agreeable experiences and aversion towards unpleasant/undesirable/disagreeable experiences, even after many years and huge amount of external yoga practice that one has been performing or many years of teaching yoga and meditation practice to many other people, and getting all the momentary effects and benefits from the regular external form of yoga practice.

The mind might be rendered calm and quiet momentarily during and after all those external yoga and meditation practice, but it doesn't last long, as very soon, the mind would unwittingly slip back into restlessness due to the stubborn egoistic mind habits of chasing after the objects of the senses, worldly enjoyments and stimulation, passionate desires of worldly and/or spiritual aspirations and ambitions, worldly social interactions and activities, and the ceaseless impurities generated through countless actions and reactions towards the mind perceptions of names and forms due to egoism of attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, where the mind is restless most of the time, even if the mind can attain certain degrees of relief from restlessness for a short period of time during deep sleep state, or during and after the different forms of external yoga practice.

By freeing the mind from egoism would allow the mind to be undetermined or undisturbed by the mind perception of names and forms, of quality and duality, or the good and bad/positive and negative/pleasant and unpleasant/desirable and undesirable life experiences, that allow the mind to be free from impurities and restlessness thoroughly.

And hence, the importance of the practice of silence for those who truly want to conquer the restless modification of the mind, to attain Silence.

After some time of practicing some kind of yoga and meditation practice regularly, one needs to perform self-introspection, "Is the mind still being determined or affected by the impermanent and selfless physical and mental condition, ability and limitation, as well as the worldly affairs, relationship, friendship, social activities and interactions, and worldly and/or spiritual achievements and acknowledgements to feel good, confident and meaningful, or not?" and "Is the mind still being determined by duality of good and bad/positive and negative/right and wrong/meaningfulness and meaninglessness/happiness and unhappiness, or all the mind perceptions of different qualities of names and forms, to feel good, positive, rightful, joyful and meaningful, or not?" or "Is the mind still being disturbed by what the mind thinks and believes as bad, wrong, negative, unhappiness and hurtful?" If the answer is yes, it means the mind is still not free, even if one has been performing yoga practice for a long time, or possessing many 'yoga certifications', and believing in 'goodness', 'righteousness' and 'positiveness'.

It's everyone's freedom for what they want and don't want to practice.

Perform self-inquiry towards all the doubts in one's mind

There’s nothing wrong with reading and memorizing and studying the teachings from the ancient scriptures of Yoga or Buddhism. Just that one needs to know how to unattached towards all the teachings in the scriptures, even if some or all of the teachings might seem to be agreeable or disagreeable to the mind based on what the mind thinks it knows, without blind-agreeing/disagreeing, blind-believing, or blind-following, but be determined to purify the mind to free the mind from egoism and impurities, to allow the mind to perform inquiry/investigation to inquire the truth of all these teachings whether they are true, or not.

At the same time, when the mind is still under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, the mind might generate disagreement or dislike towards some or all of the teachings, and out of the egoistic habit of the mind, it might feel disturbed or resentment towards the teachings that the mind disagrees with or dislikes. The disturbed mind would want to argue or debate or discuss about the truth of this and that, which the mind itself isn’t sure what it is. The mind that ‘knows’, would be in silence, allowing others to ‘understand’ or ‘interpret’ this and that in their own ways/versions.

It’s not so much about whether the teachings in the scriptures are all true, or not. Or whether there’s some misinterpretation coming from the impure mind while studying and analyzing the teachings, or there’s some misleading coming from those who ‘prepared’ the scriptures while putting the teachings into words/texts in a particular language, or there’s some imperfection while describing/translating the teachings into a particular language.

Any kinds of written texts or verbal words in any particular form of language is imperfect. That’s why the truth can only be realized through self-realization under a pure mind, and it can never be described/translated into the form of verbal or written words/texts of any languages. Buddha already stated that the truth can only be attained through self-realization via a pure and quiet mind acting as a reflector for the mind to reflect upon itself to know thyself, it's never through reading/studying/analyzing/debating/discussing or getting answers from anyone by asking questions, as one will never know whether all the answers from anyone is true, or not, unless one realizes the truth by itself.

Dhamma cannot be written down in words of any languages, and if the teachings had to be passing down through verbal form and be translated into other languages in verbal or written form, and be kept in the form of texts/words in any particular languages, it’s not perfect. Everyone who sincerely wants to follow the path of yoga or Buddhism, must work diligently on purifying and quieting the restless mind to allow the mind to inquire/reflect the truth of everything, including all the teachings from all the scriptures (any kind of teachings in text form or in verbal form of any particular language.)

And it’s not important at all whether the agreements and disagreements coming from the impure mind towards the teachings are true, or not. But it’s about the mind develops non-attachment towards all the teachings as well as all the impure mind reactions of agreements and disagreements towards everything based on ‘what the mind thinks it knows or understands’, without being disturbed by something that the mind disagrees with or dislikes, without being attached onto something that the mind agrees with or likes, remain equanimous being free from craving and aversion towards the duality of what the mind thinks and believes or understands as ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, or ‘true’ and ‘untrue’, that is upmost important.

Any form of argument, debate and discussion that derived from impure minds are useless as the minds are functioning under the influence of impurities. If the mind is free from impurities, there’s no argument, debate or discussion. Swami Sivananda mentioned repeatedly many times in many of his books – Abandon all forms of argument, debate and discussion. Purify and silent the mind. Meditate and realize. Ajahn Chah mentioned in his teachings – There’s only one book to read – the heart, look within and know thyself. Buddha’s teaching – Do not blind-believing or blind-following, investigate the truth of everything via self-realization through purification of the mind and the annihilation of ignorance and egoism – attachment, identification, the desire of craving and aversion.

The truth is there as it is when the mind is pure and quiet, being free from the influence of duality, being free from ignorance and the by-products of ignorance – egoism, impurities and restlessness of the modification of the mind. The truth is not a belief. The truth is just what things are. The truth is still the truth, that all are impermanent and selfless, including what the impure mind perceives as pleasurable enjoyment or painful suffering, regardless of what the mind thinks it knows or doesn’t know, or whether the mind agrees or disagrees with what it perceives based on what it thinks it understands, or whether the mind thinks itself is perfect or imperfect, or whether the world that the mind perceives through the senses appears to be pleasant or unpleasant, or whether the mind is happy or unhappy.

Those who had never read or come in contact with any scriptures or teachings, can still attain self-realization and be free from ignorance and suffering, when the mind is pure. Being free from ignorance and suffering doesn’t change the truth of impermanence and selflessness in all the names and forms, or doesn't change all the names and forms to be the way that the impure egoistic minds would like them to be.

Let go all kinds of worldly identifications

There is no freedom to be found in trying to seek recognition and approval from this society that consists of all kinds of different conditioned cultures, thinking and beliefs. There will always be disagreement, discrimination and hatred coming from different communities that are different from one another where they attached strongly onto their particular culture, thinking and beliefs, as all kinds of ignorance generated by ignorant minds will always exist in the world.

The law created by the worldly minded doesn't stop anyone from experiencing discrimination and hatred from others who don't like and don't agree with the others who are different from them. Prosecution and imprisonment doesn't stop the ignorant mind from being ignorant, discriminating and hating towards what is different from itself that it doesn't like and doesn't agree with. No matter how good and intelligent we think we are, it doesn't determine that we are more superior than anyone else whom we don't like and don't agree with, whom we criticize and condemn.

One can only take care one's mind to realize what is selflessness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness, through one's effort, and be free from all kinds of worldly identifications with different qualities of names and forms, and let the world to be what it is. Allowing all the other minds to be influenced by ignorance, or be free from ignorance, evolve at their own cause and pace.

Those who truly want to know what is yoga, must be determined to meditate and realize what is selflessness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness. All kinds of benefits coming from the regular yoga practice are just some side-effects. They don't give liberation without the realization of selflessness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness.

Beyond all the impermanent qualities of names and forms, conditioned worldly cultures, thinking and beliefs, and all sorts of worldly identities of who and what we think is 'I'.

There is no 'I' or 'not I'.

There is no 'human beings' or 'not human beings'.

There is no 'this nationality' or 'not this nationality'.

There is no 'male' or 'not male'.

There is no 'female' or 'not female'.

There is no 'something not male and not female' or 'not something not male and not female'.

There is no 'gay' or 'straight' or 'bi-sexual'.

There is no 'married' or 'unmarried'.

There is no 'friends' or 'not friends'.

There is no 'alone' or 'not alone'.

There is no 'religious' or 'not religious'.

There is no 'spiritual' or 'not spiritual'.

There is no 'good' or 'bad'.

There is no 'right' or 'wrong'.

There is no 'positive' or 'negative'.

There is no 'gain' or 'loss'.

There is no 'success' or 'failure'.

There is no 'superiority' or 'inferiority'.

There is no 'yogi' or 'not yogi'.

It's just impermanent qualities of names and forms that keep changing. The world is always running by many egoistic minds that are not free from ignorance and selfishness yet. Those minds that are free from ignorance, they don't run the world. They let the world runs itself.

Inequality and discrimination and all kinds of impurities generated by many ignorant minds will always exist in this world of names and forms perceived by the mind under the influence of ignorance.

Only when one has gone beyond all the identifications with qualities of names and forms, and be free from ignorance, one will be in peace and harmony resting in one's nameless and formless nature, transcending all the inequalities and discrimination derive from the mind perception of different qualities of names and forms, and be undetermined by all the other minds that are not free form ignorance yet.

Be free.

Param Vairagya - Absolute Dispassion - Neither attachment nor non-attachment

When all the duality of

Good and bad

Right and wrong

Positive and negative

Happiness and suffering

Light and darkness

Gain and loss

Praise and condemn

Success and failure

Appropriateness and inappropriateness

Norm and abnormal

Sane and insane

Birth and death

Are not different from one another

All fear and worry vanished

There's neither craving nor aversion

There's no attachment towards either side

Detachment doesn't exist

There's neither attachment nor non-attachment