Neither too tight nor too loose, follow the middle path

The sincere yoga or buddhism practitioner who is determined to attain direct realization towards the truth of selflessness, to be free from the veil of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness, needs to know how to follow the middle path, neither too tight nor too loose, where one eats enough, sleeps enough, actives enough, rests enough, works enough, not over-eating or under eating, not over sleeping or under sleeping, not over active or under active, not over resting or under resting, not over working or under working, and so on.

The middle path is the path of yoga and/or buddhism.

A life of simplicity with enough basic needs, without intentionally torturing oneself in hard living condition or indulging in easy comfortable living condition chasing after excess livelihood or comfortable pleasurable enjoyment of the senses, is the middle path.

Although under certain reason, if there is not enough basic needs for life maintenance, where the practitioner is living in a state of insufficiency, where the physical body and mind has to be spending excessive attention, energy and effort into looking after the maintenance of life, as well as maybe looking after some others in life financially, physically and mentally, and there might not be attention or energy left for performing certain physical yoga or meditation practice under particular name and form, it's okay, as all those attention, energy and effort being spent on the action of looking after the maintenance of life and looking after some others who are financially, physically or mentally dependent on oneself, are indeed the practical nameless formless practice under right effort, when one knows what is non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment and non-expectation towards the actions and the fruit of actions, free from dissatisfaction, discontentment or greed, while allowing the fruit of one's attention, energy and effort to be what it is.

This is different from the passionate desire of egoistic attachment, affection and clinging towards the physical body and all kinds of ties and relationships with some others under the presence of attachment, identification and expectation, where the duty and responsibility is being performed under the intention of gratifying worldly passionate desires and aspirations, then that is not part of the practice under right effort.

While those who are living in an easy comfortable living condition with more than enough basic needs for living, they need to be aware of not losing themselves in a comfortable condition, or losing oneself in chasing after higher and higher pleasurable enjoyment or the accumulation and hoarding of wealth, unwittingly. One needs to be able to let go all kinds of pleasurable enjoyment of the senses that are easily accessible to oneself, and only keep enough for living in simplicity that enables oneself to be focusing on the path towards the annihilation of ignorance and egoism, without spending too much attention, energy and effort into looking after life maintenance, while letting go the excess abundance to some others who are living under insufficiency, and need not continuously generating and accumulating wealth that contributing to many kinds of exploitation and damages in the world. Without attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment or expectation towards the practice or the fruit of the practice.

The mind that is lost in the generation, accumulation and hoarding of wealth will justify that its intention is to be able to perform as much charity as possible with those accumulated wealth, while not knowing that the presence of such intention or idea is merely a form of greed or ambitious, which is already swaying away from the practice.

Some minds also justifying that the indulgence in a comfortable luxurious pleasurable lifestyle is also part of the practice of non-attachment and non-identification, where they continuously indulging in such indulgence, thinking that they are also practicing non-attachment and non-identification towards such indulgence. That's their freedom of thinking and belief, however, what they are not aware of, is that the accumulation of wealth that support such luxurious pleasurable lifestyle is deriving from and empowering the many exploitation and corruptions in the world that give rise to many desperate conditions and suffering to many others in the world as well as contributing to many unnecessary damages to the surrounding environment, either directly or indirectly. And all these will lead to impactful consequences to all and everyone regardless of who and where.

Some minds mistaken the middle path as there's no need to refrain the senses from indulging in pleasurable enjoyment. That's their freedom of thinking and desire, however, the middle path includes the highly important practice of refraining the senses from chasing after the objects of the senses, or indulging in pleasurable enjoyment of the senses.

The presence of the idea or intention of "building and organizing bigger and more yoga classes, yoga events, yoga schools, yoga studios, yoga community, yoga organization, or yoga association, to be attracting more people into the world of yoga," is already a form of greed or ambitious, that is already swaying away from the practice, that the minds aren't aware of.

A yogi is not determined by the easy or hard life condition, the good or bad health and fitness condition, or the amount and size of the charity works or the dissemination of the teachings of yoga to others that one can performed under good intention.

Inquire towards the truth of everything.

Help oneself, love oneself, take care oneself

There are those who would lie and steal, and keep telling untrue pitiful stories to themselves and others to justify their own ignorance and ignorant life decision making and behavior and the consequences of their ignorance.

People don't like to take responsibility for their ignorance and the consequences of their ignorance, but they like to tell themselves and other people about their pitiful life stories of how pitiful/helpless is their tragic and sympathy deserving difficult and challenging life conditions and situations in order to get other people's sympathy, moral and financial support, but actually in truth, most of the difficulties and challenging life conditions and situations are deriving from their ignorant thinking/belief/behavior/decision making and their passionate lustful desires and greedy ambitions of living a passionate enjoyable comfortable lifestyle with big money spending high living expenses as well as having children and grandchildren that they couldn't manage to support emotionally/financially, or to bring up properly with patience and the correct guidance, but the ignorance of themselves has become the children's 'role model' of what they are becoming, of getting into financial debts, messy troubles and broken relationships with children at young age, where they don't have the emotional/financial support, patience and correct guidance that their children need from the parents, and 'out of desperation', they would lie and steal and telling themselves and other people about untrue pitiful stories of themselves that they deserve to get sympathy, help, love, care and support from other people.

The grandchildren are unwittingly becoming exactly like their parents and grandparents, if this ignorance doesn't stop, if these grandchildren don't know how to think; if they don't help themselves as they expect the deserving help from others; if they don't love themselves as they expect the deserving love from others; if they don't take care themselves as they expect the deserving care and support from others; but just being there in their most sympathy deserving look expecting sympathy, love, affection, care and support from other people, by ceaselessly telling and reminding themselves and others untrue pitiful stories about how much they deserve sympathy, love, affection, care and support from other people, they will become the same as their parents and their grandparents.

People who really want to 'help' others who are living with difficult and challenging life condition and situation, must be aware of this ignorant thinking, belief and behavior in most people.

Most of the time, people might think and believe that themselves are very sympathetic and compassionate people who are generously helping 'those poor pitiful suffering people', by showing people sympathy, help, love, affection, care and support that they think and believe that these people deserved to be getting from other people, but they are actually empowering the ignorance in people as well as in themselves.

Out of this ignorant sympathetic reaction, people keep telling the young children from broken family with financial difficulty that they are so pitiful, that they deserve sympathy, help, love, affection, care and support from other people, without knowing that many of these children would become the victims of people with selfish intention and get caught in young age childbearing, child marriage or sexual exploitation/abuse, because they are longing to receive 'help', 'love', 'affection', 'care' and 'support' emotionally and financially from other people.

If people truly want to help others (young children or adults) who are living with hard and challenging life conditions and situations to come out from that kind of difficult challenging life condition and situation, it's to teach and guide these people towards liberation from ignorance, the root cause of suffering, that how they should learn to help themselves, to love themselves and to take care themselves by freeing themselves from ignorant thinking and behavior and the consequences of ignorance, without the ignorant idea or thinking of 'these poor pitiful suffering people' deserve to be receiving sympathy, or help, or love, or care, or support from other people.

While those who receive sympathy, help, love, care or support from other people need to learn how to be free from the ignorance of the thinking and belief of they should expect or they deserve sympathy, help, love, care and support from other people, and other people are 'obliged' to show them sympathy, help, love, care and support just because they think and believe that their life conditions and situations are somehow more difficult and challenging than many other people.

Many people would justify to themselves that "Out of desperation derived from having to live under difficult and challenging life conditions and situations, they think and believe that it's okay to tell lies and steal and tell 'as pitiful as possible' untrue stories to get moral and financial help and support from other people that they think and believe that they deserve to be getting. And if they don't get what they think they deserve to be getting, they'll get disappointed, unhappy and angry, and when they are disappointed, unhappy and angry, they would do destructive things/actions that would hurt themselves and others, and they blame life and the world for their actions and reactions or behavior, as they think and believe that their destructive hurtful behavior is due to life and the world is being cruel and harsh on them."

While other ignorant minds/people also empower that ignorant idea/thinking/belief about it's because life and the world is being cruel and harsh on people, that's why people would behave like that. "Oh, such pitiful people. They behave like that because life is so hard and cruel on them."

That's the huge ignorance that most minds/people who think themselves are 'good and compassionate human beings' don't see in themselves.

One doesn't need to tell lies and steal, or involve in activities that hurt oneself and others, and doesn't need to behave in a destructive way towards oneself and/or others, no matter how hard and difficult life is, or how cruel and harsh the world is. It's mere ignorance when people justify their self-destructive hurtful behavior as the result of a hard and difficult life that they have. Those who understand, they won't empower this ignorance. Those who don't understand, they would get offended by this teaching. And that's their freedom of thinking, actions and reactions.