Relying on one another to feel love, joy and meaningful is not freedom at all

There's nothing wrong with most people/minds are relying on their relationship, companionship, connection, interaction and sharing among one another to feel love, joy and meaningful about oneself and life existence, however, it's nothing to do with the teaching of yoga and the yoga practice of attaining or realizing real (selfless compassionate) love, or freedom, or liberation, or independence through the realization of selflessness, or non-separateness, or oneness.

As the minds would perceive great disturb and suffering upon the presence of the sense of lovelessness, painful sorrow and meaninglessness either due to the presence of certain disagreeable, undesirable and unpleasant relationship, companionship, connection, interaction and sharing with some others, or due to the absence of certain agreeable, desirable and pleasant relationship, companionship, connection, interaction and sharing with some others, regardless of whether it's one's personal direct experience, or being empathetic towards some others' personal experience.

It's passion and the outgoing tendency of the mind, as well as survival instinct, fear and the desire of craving and aversion, deriving from ignorance and egoism, that is why the minds think and believe that the highest meaning of life existence is about attaining and empowering the sense of love, joyfulness and meaningfulness through developing and engaging in relationship, companionship, connection, interaction and sharing among one another, where intense attachment and identification and emotional interdependence among one another is being highly valued and promoted in the world of passionate egoistic human beings.

It's very good that if human beings can be kind and loving among one another, but it can be without attachment, identification, expectation and emotional interdependence, where the action of loving kindness is out of selfless compassion, and not out of the idea, value, belief and expectation of attaining and empowering the sense of love, joyfulness and meaningfulness in the minds through developing and engaging in relationship, companionship, connection, interaction and sharing among one another.

There's no disturb, painful sorrow or suffering in such action of loving kindness out of selfless compassion towards all and everyone non-discriminatively, free from the attachment and desire of craving towards the presence of agreeable relationship and interaction among one another, without the attachment and desire of aversion towards the presence of disagreeable relationship and interaction, or the absence of agreeable relationship and interaction among one another, and, without the need of attaining and empowering the sense of love, joyfulness and meaningfulness at all.

Such minds are truly the embodiment of unconditional loving kindness, peace, freedom and independence.

It's normal that passionate outgoing minds that are being conditioned deeply by worldly egoistic cultural, social, religious, national and political thinking, belief, values and practice would have great difficulty in understanding such selfless, wise and compassionate minds, or the teaching and practice and realization of yoga and buddhism about selflessness, or non-separateness, or oneness.

Out of survival instinct and fear, all kinds of worldly egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice have one similar common pattern, which is emphasizing on the importance of family-hood, brotherhood, sisterhood, community-hood, patriotism or loyalty among one another to be empowering, defending and protecting one another within the family, the particular community or the particular nation from any threats or intimidation coming from 'any outsiders who are not one of us'. Where anyone who is not being actively supporting or engaging in their particular family-hood, brotherhood, sisterhood, community-hood, patriotism or loyalty idea, value and practice, will be recognized as a (potential) enemy, threat, or intimidation towards their particular family, community, or nation.

Out of ignorance and egoism, what people don't realize/know/understand is that, those who are free from ignorance and egoism most probably might not be actively engaging in any kind of family-hood, brotherhood, sisterhood, community-hood, patriotism or loyalty idea, value and practice, but it doesn't mean that they are an enemy, or threat, or intimidation that would harm the family, any community, any nation and the world, or it doesn't mean that they won't be contributing anything to be benefiting the over-all welfare of the family, or the community, or the nation and the world. In fact, such minds are the ones that can truly help the world to advance towards the proper direction that benefits, not just a particular family, or a particular community, or a particular nation, but all and everyone non-discriminatively.

It's normal that some minds/people with their selfish prideful and greedy agenda or aspiration would not agree or like this at all. They need to be in power and in control of everyone and everything in order to feel great about themselves, as well as to be achieving their selfish agenda or aspiration that would make them feel "I am (We are) strong and powerful," at all costs, even if it would be hurting all and everyone or the environment. Unfortunately, none can do anything to help these minds to be free from ignorance. It has to come from one's own self-awareness and self-acknowledgement towards the ignorance in oneself, and be initiative to make an effort to be free from ignorance, or to stop hurting oneself and all the others.

Want to learn and practice yoga? (26)

Why is that giving something 'nice' and 'comforting' to the disturbed unhappy minds and doing something that will make the minds feel happy, loved and satisfied is not yoga practice or the solution to be looking after the ill mental health?

"People are being unhappy and dissatisfied about many things in life and in this world.

People need to be doing something or anything that would make them feel good, happy and satisfied, especially those who are hurt by other people's bad and wrongful behavior, they need to receive lots of love and comfort from others, to feel love and be loved by others. Love heals. Love is the greatest power that can make the world to be a better place. Everyone needs love. Lack of love is the greatest suffering and painful sorrow."

There's nothing wrong with these thinking, belief, saying, values and practice.

However, it's nothing to do with the teachings of yoga and the yoga practice, that is about freeing the mind from the root cause of disturbance, unhappiness and dissatisfaction, which is by annihilating ignorance and egoism, and it's not by empowering ignorance and egoism.

Doing something that would make the mind feels happy, loved and satisfied whenever it feels unhappy, unloved and dissatisfied about something, will only be empowering ignorance and egoism, which doesn't stop the mind from continuously being determined, disturbed, dissatisfied, angered, annoyed, offended, humiliated, unhappy or hurt by the presence of something that the mind doesn't like, doesn't agree with and doesn't desire, and the absence of something that the mind likes, agrees with and desires, or what the mind perceives as bad, wrong, sad, negative, meaningless, unpleasant, disagreeable, undesirable, painful, disgusting, annoying, offending, disrespectful, undeserving or hurtful.

Those who would discriminate, hate, exploit and hurt others intentionally, and would feel happy and satisfied by inducing suffering in oneself and others, and by seeing others being hurt, are seriously ill mentally. No matter how much 'love' other people give to these seriously ill minds, will still doesn't remove the mental illness as well as ignorant hurtful behaviors/actions/reactions from these minds. These minds might be behaving 'nicely' when all its desires of craving and aversion are being gratified, upon getting what they like and desire, but then they would be behaving 'hurtfully' when one of its desires of craving and aversion is not being gratified, upon not getting what they like and desire, while getting what they don't like and don't desire.

Empowering the desire of craving and clinging towards receiving 'love' and 'affection', 'acceptance' and 'acknowledgement', 'agreement' and 'understanding', 'praise' and 'glorification', 'appreciation' and 'gratitude', 'support' and 'comfort' from others in the minds that perceive suffering of loneliness, lovelessness, low self-esteem, meaninglessness, unhappiness, dissatisfaction, disappointment, inferiority, animosity, fear, worry, disturbs, hurts and painful sorrow due to the influence of ignorance and egoism, not only doesn't free the minds from ignorance and egoism, but it's actually leading the minds towards deeper ignorance and egoism that eventually turning into serious mental health problem.

The only thing that can help the minds that are disturbed or ill to not hurting themselves and others, is coming from the mind itself, freeing itself from ignorance and egoism. No any others and no amount of 'love' and 'affection' receiving from some others can remove the ignorance and egoism from the minds, as giving and receiving 'love' and 'affection' among one another are indeed the by-products of ignorance and egoism that generate the perception of separateness and duality, which is the cause of all kinds of misery and suffering arising in oneself and inflicting unto others.

Healthy minds are not being determined or influenced by the perception of names and forms, to be acting and reacting ignorantly and hurtfully under any unpleasant, disagreeable, undesirable conditions and situations, and vice versa.

Healthy minds that are free from the influence of ignorance and egoism don't need to be receiving 'love' and 'affection', 'acceptance' and 'acknowledgement', 'agreement' and 'understanding', 'appreciation' and 'gratitude', 'praise' and 'glorification', or 'support' and 'comfort' from others, to feel good, right, happy, confident, meaningful, deserving, superior, loved, satisfied, pleased, joyful and content. These minds are peaceful as they are. These minds are not being disturbed, threatened or hurt by the ignorance and the consequences of ignorance in others or in the world.

It's everyone's freedom and responsibility towards what they want or don't want to practice, what they understand and don't understand, and how they think, feel, behave, act and react.

"Lack of love is the greatest suffering and painful sorrow," is what most minds think and believe in, however, that's also revealing the 'problem' of this thinking and belief. It's not 'lack of love' that is causing suffering and painful sorrow in the minds, it's the desire of craving and clinging towards 'love', or 'receiving love', or 'be loved', is not being gratified, that is why the minds are in suffering and painful sorrow, upon the presence of 'lack of love', or upon the absence of 'love'.

Inquire towards the truth of everything.

Worldly identifications

One of the great obstacles or challenges for the yoga enthusiasts to be free from egoism is the intense attachment towards worldly identifications with some qualities of names and forms to be existing as 'I'.

It's 'unthinkable' for the egoistic minds to be 'functioning' or 'aware of the mind perception of a worldly life of names and forms' without any identifications with some qualities of names and forms to be acknowledged by oneself and others as 'This is I'.

There's great fear towards losing the sense of the existence of 'I', or 'selflessness/'I'-lessness', or being unable to be acknowledged by oneself and others as "I am this and that", if without any of the identifications that the egoistic thinking mind would like to acknowledge itself and be acknowledged by others that "I exist as an (unique/special/distinctive/meaningful) individual being with such and such qualities of names and forms."

Similarly, most minds have great fear towards letting go all kinds of superstitious thinking, beliefs, values and practices that were being ingrained into the minds from very young age by their elders, parents, relatives, friends, school teachers, religious teachers, the community and the society. Very few minds would question the truth of all those thinking, beliefs, values and practices, to inquire the truth of everything that was told or informed by everyone, and would just blind-believing, blind-following, blind-practicing and blind-passing on all these thinking, beliefs, values and practices. As most people would 'label' themselves or be 'labeled' by others as 'bad person' or 'traitor' towards one's root and ancestor's cultural background and family values, if they don't embrace or follow or pass down those thinking, beliefs, values and practices.

For many people, this is the 'normal', 'good', 'productive', 'positive', 'healthy', 'successful', 'meaningful' and 'rightful' way of life or living.

Not only that there was a 'basic identity upon birth' that relates to a 'given name', a 'gender', a 'family', an 'ethnicity', a 'birth place', a 'nationality' and a 'security ID number', but everyone was growing up being conditioned by the society to identify oneself with a 'sexual orientation', a 'personality', a 'physical appearance', a 'self-image', a 'body image', a 'physical condition', a 'mental state', a 'religion', a 'culture', a 'lifestyle', a 'trend', and etc. Most minds are being 'encouraged' by the society to be constantly 'developing' and 'possessing' further more other qualities of names and forms to empower or strengthen that 'self-identity', that would allow the minds to feel proud, confident and meaningful towards the existence of 'I' under such identifications. Such like, "I am a 'good', 'strong', 'healthy', 'fit', 'beautiful', 'attractive', 'stylish', 'successful', 'intelligent', 'knowledgeable', 'positive', 'multi tasking', 'talented', 'well-informed', 'well-behaved', 'inspirational', 'generous' and 'kind loving' human being on top of all the identifications with a particular belief, religion, spirituality, culture, caste, sect, educational level, social status, community group, political views, profession, interests, qualifications, certifications, achievements, contributions, possessions, relationships, connections, and so on.

There are some common sayings such as -
"Be good, do good, and life will be all good and you will be happy."
"Be nice and friendly to other people, and other people will be nice and friendly to you."
That is not necessary true.

But everyone has been circulating that kind of sayings especially from the elders to the youngsters, or from the yoga teachers to the yoga students. Many people experiencing disappointment, depression and meaninglessness because they have such expectation towards life, where everyone and everything has to be in certain ways based on those sayings.

Many times, life is not necessarily all good and people are not happy even after they are being good and they have done many good. And it's okay.

People don't have to be happy all the time. Just be good and do good, and allow the fruit of actions to be what it is, not necessarily has to be the way that we would like it to be.

Sometimes, people are not being grateful or appreciative towards our kindness and friendliness, and are not being nice or friendly to us when we are being nice and friendly to them. And it's okay.

People don't have to be grateful and appreciative, and be nice and friendly to others, if they don't want to. Just be nice and friendly to others, without the expectation that other people should be grateful and appreciative, and be nice and friendly to us in return.

The most practical way in the yoga practice to eliminate egoism from the mind is via renunciation of what most minds being conditioned to think and believe as the 'normal' and 'meaningful' way of life. Moving the mind away from the egoistic worldly social cultural thinking and beliefs, ideas, relationships, connections, interactions and activities, and letting go novels, news and magazines reading, radio listening, movies watching and theater visiting. Be determined to observe seclusion and solitude for at least five or six years, cutting off all kinds of worldly social cultural inputs, ideas, connections, activities and interactions, to allow the mind to be free from being conditioned by worldly thinking and beliefs that are all about empowering worldly attachment and identification. Only then the mind can see the truth of names and forms as it is.

Once the mind is free from being conditioned by worldly egoistic thinking and beliefs, it is no longer being determined by any of the worldly identifications with qualities of names and forms to be existing as 'I'. There's no need to feel proud, confident or meaningful towards "I am somebody endowed with this and that prideful, superior and meaningful qualities."

There's no 'I' being there that needs to be empowered, be acknowledged, be motivated, be inspired, be loved, be proud, be confident and be meaningful. There's no 'I' being there to be strong, be weak, be happy, be unhappy, be positive, be negative, be good, be bad, be hurt, be healed, be pleased, be displeased, be praised, be insulted, be selfish, be unselfish, be unfree or be free.

While the entire world emphasize on the empowerment of a strong self-identity nurtured with the qualities of names and forms of particular social/cultural/ethnicity/nationality ideas/values/practices, yoga practice is mainly to free the mind from all these identifications with any qualities of names and forms.

Even the idea of "I am a yoga practitioner practicing yoga of annihilating ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness" and the desire of "I want to practice yoga to be free from ignorance and suffering" vanished from the minds that know thyself.

Fine as it is

Most minds are being conditioned by the worldly thinking and belief about "One has to be happy in order to live life meaningfully, as well as one has to live life meaningfully in order to be happy."

What is "live life meaningfully" and what the mind believes as "happiness" is different for different people.

Be free from the thinking and belief about one has to be happy to live life meaningfully, and vice versa, is a great liberation.

It's okay that sometimes the mind is not okay, that the mind doesn't feel happy in this present moment, or for some time. It's impermanent, and it's not 'I'. It's okay that sometimes the mind doesn't feel living life meaningfully in this present moment, or for some time. It's impermanent, and it's not 'I'. The mind doesn't need to be happy or feel meaningful all the time.

People like to say "If there's no happiness, life is meaningless." and most people think and believe that happiness and meaningfulness is the presence of something good and positive and the absence of something bad and negative. Some people also say, "If there's no good health, there's no happiness."

Many people relate "live life meaningfully" as being able to do what we like to do, go where we want to go, live where we want to live, have a healthy body, have a decent livelihood, live a good quality of life, have different varieties of social circles/networks, make a lot of friends, and either live a happy single life, or find a good life partner/spouse to set up a happy family.

People who have a difficult life condition, or have been experiencing ill-treatment from other people, or have to deal with physical injury or health problems, or suffer from physical or emotional damages due to other people's ignorance and ignorant behavior, or couldn't make a living due to bad economy or oppression, or under went a painful divorce or break-up, or would love to have a family, but for some reasons, they couldn't have a family, it doesn't mean that they can't live life meaningfully or be happy, disregards all the ordeals or difficulties that they have to go through. All these undesirable experiences don't give rise to suffering or the sense of meaninglessness to those who truly practice yoga and realize yoga. Only those who are not free from ignorance and egoism, who attached onto qualities of names and forms to be happy and feel meaningful, or not, will be determined by all kinds of desirable and undesirable life experiences to be who they are, to be happy and feel meaningful, or not.

In yoga, it's about freeing the mind from this conditional thinking and belief about the achievement and possession of certain qualities of names and forms to be the reasons for one to be happy, or to deserve happiness and to live life meaningfully, or else, the absence of the achievement and possession of those qualities of names and forms will result in no reason for one to be happy, or to deserve happiness and to live life meaningfully.

One doesn't need to be happy or feel happy all the time, in order to feel meaningful or to live life meaningfully. One doesn't need to feel meaningful or to live life meaningfully, in order to be happy. One is peaceful and happy as one is.

Those who are free, they do their best to do what they like and want to do, and achieve what they want to achieve in this life existence, but they are not defined by what they like and want to do, or what they want to achieve, and whether they are able to do what they like and want to do, or achieve what they want to achieve, or not, in order to be happy, or to feel meaningful and to live life meaningfully, or not.

There's nothing wrong that many people believe that all human beings need to have motivation and expectation to keep pushing themselves, to keep improving, to attain success or higher and higher success in life, as well as to have faith in their religion or 'God', then they deserve happiness or will be blessed with happiness and living life meaningfully. Or else, they believe that those who are contented with the present moment as it is, or don't have any religion practice, or don't believe in 'God', they don't deserve happiness or will not be blessed with happiness or don't live life meaningfully. But, that's not the truth, because people can still be unhappy and suffering from all kinds of impurities in their own minds, if their minds are not free from ignorance and egoism, even if people attain success in life from time to time, or have a healthy body, or have a higher quality of life, or have a religion practice and believe in 'God'. Their minds will still be disturbed by something that they don't like, don't want and don't agree with. There's no peace.

If 'God' exists, and if 'God' is almighty and all love, 'God' bless all and everyone and everything to be sharing this space of the universe, disregards human beings believing or disbelieving in 'God', including all those that are non-human beings, that don't have any particular thinking and belief of a religion or 'God'.

While yoga practice is to inquire the truth of everything that the mind comes in contact with (including the teachings of yoga), and be free from being conditioned or limited by all kinds of worldly thinking and belief, freeing the mind from ignorance, egoism and impurities, being free from attachment, identifications, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation, being free from anger, hatred, jealousy, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurts, guilt, regret, violence, ill-will, animosity, speculation, anticipation, agitation, depression, sorrow, defensiveness, offensiveness, loneliness, anxieties, longing, fear and worry, being free from the pleasant and unpleasant past experiences and future imaginations, living in the present from moment to moment, to realize unconditional peace and love that is beyond all the worldly objects of different qualities of names and forms about what is and what is not "happiness" and "live life meaningfully".

One doesn't need to keep pushing the body and mind to go beyond its limitation in order to attain success, or higher success, in order to be happy, or to live life meaningfully. One can be very successful in everything that one wants to achieve, but one is not defined by the success or the achievements to be 'I', to be happy or to live life meaningfully.

One doesn't need to be someone that will make oneself and other people feel proud of, to be happy or to live life meaningfully.

One doesn't need to be good enough according to the worldly thinking and belief about what is "good enough", to be happy, or to deserve happiness and live life meaningfully.

It doesn't mean that one stops performing actions, but one doesn't need any motivation or expectation to motivate one to perform actions that are wholesome to oneself and others. Actions are being performed without the need of motivation or intention, without attachment, identification or expectation towards the actions and the fruit of actions.

It's okay if people don't like this yoga teaching and practice. That's their freedom.

Be free.