How to be free from the sense of pride and superiority

The minds that are devoid of the sense of pride and superiority, they don't need to be free from pride and superiority.

The minds that have the sense of pride and superiority, most probably they enjoy very much being prideful and are enjoying the superior status, and won't be interested in letting go the sense of pride and superiority.

"To be free from the sense of pride and superiority? Why? Is that even a thing that exists? Everyone works so hard and wants to be able to be qualified and deserving to be prideful about their physical and mental quality and ability and all kinds of achievements and possessions, that give them the status of superiority, and be able to boast or glorify about the qualities, abilities, achievements, and possessions that they have, that give them the sense of pride and superiority, that make them feel strong and powerful."

Just like the minds that enjoy making unlimited money and hoarding unlimited wealth and possessions, most probably they won't be interested in letting go greed, or endless dissatisfaction or discontentment, and hoarding/possessiveness.

Unless they experience something impactful in life, where they realize that there are certain things that they want so much, but they can't get, or buy, or in exchange with the total amount of ability, wealth, possession, and power that they have, that will make them rethink or reflect about themselves or about life existence.

Upon coming in contact with certain impactful experience, or intense physical/mental/emotional painful suffering, where their own physical body is no longer in their command to perform even the simplest task, the minds that are prideful about their superior status might rethink and reflect about the uselessness or powerlessness of the sense of pride and the superior status, as no matter how prideful and superior that they think they are, they are just like all and everyone else, where all and everyone cannot escape the inevitable limitation of selfless impermanent changes of decay, hunger, thirst, restless maintenance, aging, weakness, stiffness, illness, pain, injury, disability, disintegration, and death, or mortality.

It is highly exhausting to be upholding the sense of pride and superiority that come from the attachment and identification towards certain qualities, abilities, achievements, and possessions that they have, that are limited, conditional, and impermanent. Not only that it takes a lot of energy or effort to maintain all that, but they also need to ceaselessly attain and possess more or higher quality, ability, achievement, and possession, and hence, upon intense exhaustion, maybe some of them will realize that they don't need to be the slave of pride and superiority that come from the possession and accumulation of qualities, abilities, achievements, and possessions that are impermanent, and out of their own freewill or desire, they want to let go the sense of pride and superiority. While there are some minds will never let go, and that's their freedom.

Some minds might question that how difficult can it be to just let go the sense of pride and superiority?

The sense of pride and superiority, a.k.a. the sense of momentary satisfaction, security, success, accomplishment, strength, and power, that are limited, conditional, and impermanent, is similar to any kinds of 'physical or mental addiction' that give the minds some momentary pleasurable enjoyable sensations or feelings that are limited, conditional, and impermanent, that the minds addicted onto.

It is not easy, but it's possible for the minds to let go of the sense of pride, superiority, success, strength, and power, that are there to suppress the many other qualities or impurities that exist in the modification of the mind that they don't like and don't want, such as the sense of low self-esteem, low self-worth, inferiority, failure, weakness, fear, insecurity, animosity, insufficiency, and powerless, reacting towards the presence of certain limitations or qualities in the body and mind that they don't like, disagree with, and don't desire.

It is also because of the ignorant egoistic impure minds don't like, disagree with, and don't desire certain undesirable qualities that exist in their body and their modification of the mind, that make them feel inferior, or insufficient, or weak, or insecure, or powerless, they will also be discriminate towards others that have certain qualities that they don't like, disagree with, and don't desire.

The minds that have discrimination and hatred towards some others, that cannot accept and be kind towards some others that they discriminate and hate, is because these minds have discrimination and hatred towards something in themselves that they don't like, disagree with, and don't desire, where they cannot accept and be kind to themselves as they are. If so, how can they accept and be kind towards some others as they are?

That's why the minds that know how to accept and be kind to themselves as they are, will also know how to accept and be kind to many others as they are, devoid of discrimination or hatred towards oneself and others.

One thing for sure. The most prideful and superior super successful, super strong, and super powerful person in the world will also have to bow down to DECAY and DEATH, when they can't even perform the simplest task, or can't even walk to the toilet, and can't control their pee and shit, or upon the heart stops beating, and the breath stops coming and going.

The unlimited degrees or amount of difficulty/challenge that exists in the yoga asana practice, the pranayama practice, and the concentration practice (especially in certain lineage that only focus on the yoga asana/pranayama/concentration practice, that deliberately doesn't talk about any philosophy at all - "99% of practice, 1% of theory", "Just do your practice, and all will come to you" that are designed for hammering or breaking the prideful ego of the practitioners that have a strong and energetic physical condition and personality), that has no limit of difficulty or challenge physically/mentally/emotionally, until the body and mind can't push any further, and breaks down.

Many people might think and believe that physical/mental/emotional breakdown is something bad and terrible, but it can be the precious life changing moment for the prideful arrogant minds to rethink and reflect upon themselves and life existence, and how they treat all the others in this world that doesn't belong to anyone and anything. Here, we are talking about the self discipline of performing the yoga asana/pranayama/concentration practice out of one's own freewill willingly to discipline one's own modification of the mind, without violence, or forced by some others.

This physical/mental/emotional breakdown process deriving from performing the challenging yoga asana practice, is coming from the prideful arrogant mind itself trying to push its body and mind beyond its limitation, that enables the mind to have direct experience and understanding towards the inevitable truth of limitation and impermanence in the body and mind, to be free from pride/arrogance/and many other egoistic impurities, but definitely it's not coming from some others impose/inflict certain violent and aggressive disciplinary training/punishment forcefully unto some others, to push them beyond their physical and mental limitation, in order to hammer and break them, to make them feel weak and vulnerable, to make them become submissive and surrender under their control.

That's why the challenging yoga asana practice being performed out of one's freewill, can help the minds to grow and evolve towards peace, wisdom, and kindness, and even if they haven't attained self realization yet, but just by performing the yoga asana practice regularly for certain months and years, will bring beneficial effects to the body and mind, that can improve the physical and mental health and fitness condition.

Meanwhile, the authoritarianism or disciplinarians that is about coming from someone (an authority or a disciplinarian) imposes/inflicts violent forceful aggressive disciplinary training/punishment or restrictive rules and regulations unto some others, to inflict certain painful physical and mental suffering unto some others, with the intention to make some others to become submissive towards the authority or the disciplinarian, to behave or don't behave in certain way, doesn't help the minds to grow and evolve towards peace, wisdom, and kindness, but the contrary of that.

Just like all kinds of world records in any kind of sports activities and competitions. A world record holder of weight lifting, or high jumping, or gymnastic competition understands that the physical body is limited, where it can never win against the unlimited weight, unlimited height, or unlimited difficulty, as well as the selfless impermanent changes that are not in the control of the body and mind, that can allow the prideful mind to have direct experience and understand towards the sense of pride and superiority as well as the optimistic positive thinking and belief, confidence, and affirmation about "I am highly knowledgeable, intelligent, talented, well-trained, young, healthy, fit, super energetic, super strong, super powerful, and superior human being. I can do and achieve anything that I desire," doesn't and cannot defy or escape DECAY, ILLNESS, INJURY, OLD AGE, and DEATH.

These competitive athletes understand that PRIDE and SUPERIORITY, 'achievement' and 'winning'/'victory', or 'world record' and 'world record holder', or the strongest/the fastest/the supplest/the lightest/the most talented/the most skillful/the most powerful/the most charming/the most influential, and etc, doesn't really mean anything for the physical body, or the life existence, that is limited, that is impermanent, that is extremely fragile.

There is really nothing that can be prideful about, and there is no superiority in anything.

The minds that understand this, will not hurt themselves or others. 

Only the ignorant egoistic minds will think and believe that they (need to) have something that they can be prideful about, and that make them feel somehow more powerful or superior than many others, that boost the sense of self-esteem, self-worth, power, strength, security, accomplishment, and meaningfulness, that are also impermanent. These minds will be hurting themselves and others by constantly forcing their body and mind beyond its limitation in order to achieve higher and endless achievements, out of the sense of pride and superiority.

The minds that are devoid of the sense of pride and superiority,  even when they are highly successful, accomplished, intelligent, knowledgeable, talented, or skillful in something or many things, will also simultaneously be free from dissatisfaction, disappointment, greed, anger, hatred, discrimination, possessiveness, selfishness, low self-esteem, low self-worth, insecurity, humiliation, animosity, offensiveness, defensiveness, bully, jealousy, envy, fear, agitation, frustration, annoyance, violence, authoritarianism or disciplinarians, and all kinds of impurities. (The annihilation of duality, of all kinds of egoistic impurities)

That's why the annihilation of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness, is the highest duty of all minds.

Although the limited body and mind can never change or defeat the truth of selflessness and impermanence, but it can go beyond or transcend all kinds of limitation, not being determined or over-powered by all kinds of limitation, while make good use of the availability of energy, life existence, supportive condition, ability, knowledge, intelligence, talent, skill, opportunity, and possibility in the present moment now, to be doing something beneficial for oneself and others and the world, even if all these are limited, conditional, and impermanent.

Inquire the truth of everything.

The yoga asana practice and the sense of pride or low self-esteem

The sense of pride or superiority and the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority is a huge obstacle on the path of yoga, where the mind is being determined by the presence and absence of impermanent qualities of names and forms, and it keeps chasing after the attainment, possession, and identification towards the presence and absence of certain qualities of names and forms that will give rise to the sense of pride or superiority, that needed to be maintained and empowered regularly, as most passionate egoistic minds are being conditioned to think and believe that one must attain and possess certain qualities that will give rise to the sense of pride or superiority, in order to be free from the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority.

The sense of pride/superiority and the sense of low self-esteem/inferiority are the two sides of a coin. They exist together.

The vanish of the sense of pride or superiority will lead to the vanish of low self-esteem or inferiority, simultaneously, and vice versa.

None need the presence of the sense of pride or superiority towards anything, to be existing, to be living, to be happy, to be peaceful, to be free, and to be constantly improving in this world. While the presence of the sense of pride or superiority a.k.a. the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority gives rise to many unnecessary 'troubles' in one's life, particularly in one's relationship and interaction with some others.

The mind that is being over-powered by the sense of pride will feel being offended or annoyed easily by certain teachings and practices of yoga that the mind dislikes and disagrees with, as well as upon coming in contact with certain affairs and interactions with some others that appeared to be unpleasant, disagreeable, and undesirable to the mind. It wants and expects the yoga practice or the yoga classes as well as all and everything to be in certain way that it prefers, desires, likes, and agrees with.

Certain kind of physically and mentally demanding intense yoga asana practice is existing and suitable for the mind that is being over-powered by the sense of pride or superiority a.k.a. the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority. 

The prideful ego will be hammered repeatedly by the more and more challenging yoga asana poses or sequences, that has no limit of higher and higher degree of difficulty and complexity, upon attaining certain degrees of enhancement and achievement in the yoga asana practice, where the mind will eventually be 'humbled' by such limitless practice. Such as, in the beginning one couldn't do even one push up, but then after some time having developed certain degrees of strength and stamina, the body can do 10 push ups consecutively, and it makes the mind feels good and confident or superior about itself, and then, the mind is highly motivated and expects the body to be able to do 20, 30, 40, or 50 consecutive push ups, then, 75, then 100, then 150 push ups, and so on. However, if the mind doesn't develop the basic correct understanding towards the teachings of yoga or the means of the yoga practice, it will only be focusing on continuously challenging the body and mind beyond its limitation until the body and mind suffers unnecessary injuries, regardless of how long and how much the mind has been practicing such yoga asana practice, or regardless of how fit, strong, and flexible is the physical body becoming, because there is never ending of higher and higher degree of difficulty and complexity in such yoga asana practice.

Being able to do 200 or more two arms, or one arm, or two fingers, or one finger consecutive push ups, or being able to perform many physically and mentally demanding complex yoga asana poses and/or sequences, and the mind is highly focus or attentive while performing all these physically and mentally demanding physical activities or yoga practices, is irrelevant to whether the mind is free from ignorance and the by-products and the consequences of ignorance, or not.

The mind that is being over-powered by the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority might feel being intimidated by certain teachings and practices of yoga that appeared to be challenging, unfamiliar, and unease to the body and mind, as well as it would feel being intimidated by and envy towards the physical and mental condition, ability, performance, progression, and achievement of some others that appeared to be 'better' or 'more superior' than oneself. However, at the same time, it's also because of the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority, such mind will be feeling good and confident or superior about itself upon the presence of certain enhancement in the physical and mental condition, ability, performance, and achievement, upon being able to perform certain yoga asana poses or sequences that it couldn't perform in the beginning, that it couldn't be able to perform comfortably and effortlessly. And hence, it is being motivated to keep practicing regularly in order to attain higher and higher enhancement, ability, performance, and achievement in the yoga asana practice, so that it can keep feeling good and confident or superior about itself.

That is not liberation at all.

Such minds would feel greatly disturbed, disappointed, and frustrated, if for some reasons, the persistent regular yoga asana practice is being disrupted by someone or something, or upon the absence of further improvement or higher ability and achievement, or upon the presence of declination in the physical and mental condition, ability, performance, and achievement in the yoga asana practice, either due to disruption in the regular practice, or illness, or injury, or decay, or weakness, or old age, or any unforeseen circumstances.

Upon the prideful ego is being hammered repeatedly by the challenging intense yoga asana practice that has no limit of higher and higher degree of difficulty and complexity until the body and mind ceased functioning and existing, the mind might either becoming more prideful for being able to do and achieve this or that by pushing the body and mind beyond its limitation as much as it can, regardless of whether there is the presence or absence of unnecessary injuries, or, it might be 'humbled' by such intense physical and mental demanding yoga asana practice, as well as be 'humbled' by the truth of impermanence, where the mind will start to think and acknowledge, "I am humbled by this intense yoga asana practice and the truth of impermanence of this physical body. I will now be humble and modest, as no matter how good I am or how good the physical condition can be, and no matter how much I can do and achieve with this enhanced physical and mental condition and ability, there will always be something else that I still can't do or achieve (yet), and this physical body is inevitably constantly changing and decaying. I don't need to push the body and mind beyond its limitation that hurt the body and mind in order for me to feel good and confident or superior." Note that this realization is not the end of the yoga practice, but it's the beginning of the path of self-inquiry and self-realization.

There is still the idea of 'I' or the ego, existing in the mind being humbled by the intense yoga asana practice that has no limit of higher and higher degree of difficulty and complexity, as well as acknowledging and identifying as, "I am humbled, and I am a humble and modest being, devoid of pride or superiority."

There is no 'I' existing to be 'humbled' and to be acknowledging and identifying as a 'humble and modest being, devoid of pride or superiority', upon self-realization towards the truth of selflessness. There is neither pride nor humbleness, neither superiority nor inferiority.

Similarly, the physical and mental demanding yoga asana practice might be rendering the mind focusing within, calm, and quiet, not being disturbed or affected by the external names and forms during those moments of concentration focusing within onto the breath, or the point of focus/attention/awareness (Drishti), or the position and movement, that gives rise to conditional peace that is impermanent, where the mind is acknowledging and identifying as, "I am focused within. I am not being disturbed or affected by the external names and forms. I am calmed and quiet. I am peaceful." But all these are conditional and impermanent.

If without self-inquiry, if without working on freeing the mind from the veil of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, and impurities, all those impermanent moments of concentration/focus/attentiveness and the state of calmness and quietness (a.k.a. conditional peace) don't necessarily mean that the mind is liberated from ignorance and suffering, as if without eradicating the idea of 'I', ignorance, and egoism from the modification of the mind, the mind will still be disturbed and affected by the mind perception of names and forms outside those moments of focusing within, calm and quiet state of the mind that is conditional and impermanent, and hence, it might still act and react in the way that could be harmful to oneself and/or others and the surrounding environment, either intentionally or unintentionally, under the influence of ignorance, egoism, impurities, and the disturbed/agitated state of mind, or under the absence of correct understanding.

No doubt that by engaging in such physically and mentally demanding intense yoga asana practice, the senses or the organs of the senses are being withdraw from the world of names and forms, to allow the mind to be focusing within, and hence, the mind is rendered to be in a state of attentiveness, calmness, and quietness, being undisturbed by the external names and forms during those moments of withdrawing the senses, but that is also impermanent. It's not the end of the practice.

It's like if the senses are being withdraw turning inward focusing within, where the mind doesn't perceive, or doesn't see, or doesn't hear, or doesn't smell, or doesn't taste, or doesn't touch, or doesn't feel, or doesn't think about any names and forms that appeared to be either distracting or disturbing to the mind, and hence, the mind won't feel being disturbed, and will be in a state of calmness and quietness. That is not liberation.

Liberation is upon the mind isn't being determined, or distracted, or disturbed by the perceived names and forms being what they are, under the presence of correct understanding, upon the absence of egoistic attachment, identification, craving, aversion, comparison, judgment, and expectation. It's not about don't see, don't hear, don't smell, don't taste, don't touch, don't feel, and don't think about anything that appeared to be distracting or disturbing to the mind, so that the mind won't be distracted or disturbed. That's why the minds that don't work on the annihilation of the idea of 'I' and egoism might feel good, calm, and peaceful by moving the mind away from what it thinks and believes is distracting or disturbing, but then the mind wouldn't feel good, calm, or peaceful anymore once they go back to 'everyday life existence' as it is, as they are being distracted or disturbed by what they see, hear, smell, taste, touch, feel, and think. It's not liberation.

That is also why the teachings of yoga emphasized on continuously extending or expanding the duration of holding the different yoga asana for as long as possible, or holding the breath for as long as possible, or maintaining the concentration/focus/attentiveness, or the calm and quiet undisturbed state of the mind for as long as possible, that have no limit of duration, and that are conditional and impermanent, so that the mind will spend most of its existence, energy, attention, and effort onto the regular practice, and hence, will spend less energy, attention, and effort onto something else that might be harmful to oneself and/or others and the surrounding environment, but it doesn't necessary mean that the mind is free from ignorance or the by-products and the consequences of ignorance.

And that is totally okay as well, particularly upon the realization towards the truth of selflessness.

The important thing is that the ignorant passionate egoistic impure minds that are still under the influence of ignorance and its by-products, but were being rendered focus, calm and quiet through the intense regular physical and mental yoga practice, even if it's conditional and impermanent, that needs to be maintained regularly through engaging in certain action or practice, but at least, they are not generating or are generating less unnecessary ignorant harmful actions and reactions unto oneself, others, and the surrounding environment, within those impermanent moments of focusing onto performing the yoga practice, focusing within, attentiveness, calmness, and quietness (the momentary undisturbed state of mind that is conditional and impermanent), while still existing and functioning momentarily in this space of the universe that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

Even so, the complete annihilation of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness, or the attainment of self-realization via self-inquiry towards what is 'I', is still upmost important, if possible, where the mind is no longer being determined or influenced by the impermanent imperfect states of the mind or the impermanent imperfect effects of the yoga/concentration/meditation practice, being undisturbed or unaffected by the mind perception of names and forms beyond the impermanent states of the mind, regardless of performing or not performing certain yoga/concentration/meditation practice, in action or inaction, transcending the impermanent selfless existence and function of the mind, resting in unconditional peace unconditionally while the selfless impermanent body and mind is still functioning and existing.

There are different types of yoga students/practitioners/enthusiasts that are similar to the different types of wood. The dry wood can be ignited easily, and the slightly wet wood can be ignited after spending certain period of time to be undergoing the process of drying under the right conditions, while the highly wet wood can never be ignited if it stays wet, even after spending certain period of time undergoing the process of drying, but for some reasons, it keeps getting wet, or it isn't getting dried properly under the right conditions.

The minds that are being over-powered by the sense of pride or superiority/the sense of low self-esteem or inferiority are similar to the wet wood that keeps getting wet, or is not getting dried properly under the right conditions. The physically and mentally demanding type of intense yoga asana practice is most suitable for these minds, as it makes the mind feels good/confident/superior about itself whenever there is some improvement or achievement in the challenging yoga asana practice.

The minds that are not being over-powered by the sense of pride or low self-esteem, however, they are still under the influence of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness, are similar to the slightly wet wood that needs to go through the process of getting dried for a certain period of time (the mind purification process).

The minds that are devoid of the sense of pride/superiority or the sense of low self-esteem/inferiority as well as some other impurities, but somehow, there is still the idea of 'I' existing in the mind due to the veil of ignorance, are similar to the dry wood that doesn't need to go through any kind of drying process at all. These minds don't need to be spending much energy and effort into any kind of yoga practice, not to say, in certain physically and mentally demanding type of intense yoga asana practice, in order to be performing self-inquiry, and attaining direct self-realization towards the truth of selflessness. As unconditional peace, compassion, self-inquiry, and self-realization, or the liberation from ignorance and suffering, is not being determined by the degrees of health and fitness, strength and flexibility, as well as the selfless impermanent effects, benefits, improvements, abilities, performances, and achievements of performing the yoga asana practice and/or any other forms of yoga practice regularly.

The minds that are devoid of ignorance, the idea of 'I', egoism, impurities, and restlessness, they are resting in unconditional peace, as they are. Any kind of yoga/concentration/meditation practice or self-inquiry, is irrelevant or useless to them.

Out of ignorance and egoism, some minds might perceive this as a form of criticism, discrimination, comparison, or judgment. That's their freedom of thinking and understanding.

This is not a form of criticism, discrimination, comparison, or judgment at all, but merely about things or the teachings and practices being what they are. The highly wet wood can also be ignited upon getting dried effectively under the right conditions. Meanwhile, even the dry wood might somehow get wet under certain conditions, and hence, it needed to go through the process of drying (performing certain yoga/concentration/meditation practice).

If the mind still thinks, acknowledges, and identifies as, "I am humbled. I am now humble and devoid of pride," upon the realization towards the truth of impermanence, then know that this mind still need to keep practicing and keep inquiring towards the truth of selflessness, or 'I'lessness, or egolessness.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Be free from selfishness, possessiveness, pride, discrimination, petty-mindedness

Selfishness, possessiveness, pride, discrimination, and petty-mindedness, or greed, is not distinctive from self-destruction. It hurts others, and it will hurt oneself.

When a mind, not to say, the minds of a group of community, is being over-powered by selfishness, possessiveness (of claiming ownership and authority towards certain space and nature that don't belong to anyone), pride (towards their particular identity and possession), discrimination (towards the others that the mind(s) perceived as 'foreigners' or 'not one of us'), and petty-mindedness (of unwilling to be sharing the space and nature that don't belong to anyone with all and everyone, or unwilling to look after the general physical and mental welfare of the others, but depriving and destroying the general physical and mental welfare of the others), and under the influence of all these names and forms, the mind(s) generate desires, thoughts, actions and expressions that project the aspiration of either unwelcoming, pushing away, chasing out, and hating towards 'the others', or charging/taxing all others for their existence and all kinds of basic needs for survival in this space that doesn't belong to anyone, it all will come back unto oneself (themselves).

How people (the minds) desire to 'build' their 'living space' that doesn't belong to them or anyone (either full of peace, openness, kindness and harmony that give rise to prosperity for everyone, or full of unrest, selfishness, unkindness and disharmony that give rise to desperation and suffering for everyone), that's the 'living space' that they will be living in.

All kinds of basic survival needs that are available for all kinds of names and forms to be existing and surviving here in this space that doesn't belong to anyone, are coming from the selfless universe or the selfless nature, absolutely available for all and everyone to be existing and surviving here in this space that doesn't belong to anyone, unconditionally and limitlessly, provided that each and everyone needs to be exerting certain effort or energy to be maintaining and looking after their own existence and survival. All and everyone still needs to find food and water, and eat the food and drink the water, which requires certain effort or energy, where the energy is also coming from the selfless support of the selfless universe or nature, unconditionally and limitlessly, until the end of the existence of any particular name and form.

However, the many ignorant selfish possessive discriminating greedy minds thought that they could just claim ownership and authority towards the space and all kinds of basic survival needs that don't belong to anyone as much as they can, keeping for their own existence and survival, while at the same time, either forbidding others from existing and surviving in this space that doesn't belong to anyone, or restricting others' existence and survival by charging/taxing others for being existing and surviving in this space that doesn't belong to anyone.

It's like the air or oxygen. It doesn't belong to anyone. Similarly, the sun, the earth, the space, the land, the water, the nature or natural resources that exist selflessly and unconditionally for the existence and life maintenance or survival of all kinds of names and forms, don't belong to anyone.

Inquire the truth of everything.

The mind is being offended by something that promotes world peace and harmony, unselfishness, non-discrimination and unconditional love?

There are minds being offended and angered by something that promotes world peace and harmony, unselfishness, non-discrimination and unconditional love among all and everyone under different names and forms in the world of many diversities. But why?

Why does the mind is being offended and angered by as well as strongly opposing something that promotes world peace and harmony, unselfishness, non-discrimination and unconditional love among all and everyone in the world of diversity?

And if, one's belief, values, practice, behavior, desire and vision is all about promoting world peace and harmony, unselfishness, non-discrimination and unconditional love, then how come there is so much offensiveness, anger and hatred in oneself towards something that is about world peace and harmony, unselfishness, non-discrimination and unconditional love, not to say, towards something that is the opposite of all that?

Unless the existing belief, values, practice, behavior, desire and vision in the mind, is about promoting unrest and disharmony, selfishness, discrimination and hatred, that is something different from and contradicting with the teachings and practice that promotes world peace and harmony, unselfishness, non-discrimination and unconditional love, or else, why does the mind is being offended and angered, and opposing towards the similar values, teachings, practice and behavior, just because it is under a different name and form, that is coming from and representing some other form of teachings or beliefs, that is not coming from or representing one's belief under a particular name and form?

Why does the mind constantly feel being offended, intimidated, belittled, disrespected, humiliated, threatened or hurt by something that promotes liberation, independence, freedom, wisdom, compassion, peace, harmony, unselfishness, contentment, non-greed, non-possessiveness, non-discrimination and unconditional loving kindness and acceptance among all kinds of diversities, not to say, something that is opposite of all that?

It's the freedom of the mind for its thinking, belief, values, practice, desire, behavior, action and reaction. There's neither right nor wrong. The mind just needs to know and understand what is going on in itself or why does itself behaving, acting and reacting in certain way.

Inquire the truth of everything.

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.

Not playing the game that empowers egoism and ignorance

Life is not always easy, and can be quite hard at certain time, where many of those unnecessary uneasiness and hardship are the by-products deriving from the ignorance and egoism of the prideful selfish human beings, that can be avoided if more minds, especially those who have the capability and opportunity to be the leaders or influencers in the world, are free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, which is unfortunately not the case in this world.

It's understandable that out of survival instinct, many people would just play along with the egoistic game of diplomacy and grouping, that is built on hypocrisy and identification that empowers ignorance, egoism, selfishness, possessiveness, separateness and all kinds of discrimination, in order to avoid certain 'difficulties', and be able to enjoy a life that is less 'hard' by being compliant towards many 'human made rules and regulations created out of selfishness' that don't necessarily make life any easier but more complicated.

If one gives in to the unnecessary difficulty and complication that derived from the ignorance and egoism in the world, and desire to be enjoying a slightly easier living condition while being existing in this world of ignorance and egoism, where one plays along with the game of ignorance and egoism, that empowers attachment, identification, desire, comparison, judgment and expectation, then not only that one is not helping the world to be a better place for all beings non-discriminatively, to have less corrupted thinking, belief, actions and reactions, but one is empowering the system that is created out of the ignorance and egoism of human beings, that gives rise to ongoing unnecessary corruptions, difficulties, hardships, damages and suffering in the world.

All kinds of talking and activism about spreading awareness about 'peace in the world', 'non-discrimination', 'all lives matter', 'non-violence', 'corruption free government', 'clean and fair justice and democracy', 'environmental friendly ecological clean way of living', 'vegetarianism', 'veganism', and so on, might help to relieve certain degrees of human made damages in the world, but it doesn't eliminate the source of all kinds of human made problems and damages deriving from the highly corrupted 'system', if the minds are not free from ignorance and egoism, where everyone is playing along with the game of egoism, supporting and empowering the 'system' that derived from and empowers selfishness, pride, attachment, identification, possessiveness, separateness and discrimination, either wittingly or unwittingly.

If a nation will only grant a person a citizenship, if one speaks their particular language proficiently and live life according to their national and cultural belief, values and practice, that one is being proud of being one of them, that one will support, promote and defend their particular political ideas, visions and values, that one has to know their national anthem and the past history of their governmental leaders and affairs, where they cannot accept one as it is, where one doesn't necessarily speak their particular language, doesn't necessarily live life according to their national and cultural belief, values and practice, is not having any attachment and identification or pride towards a national or community or family identity, is not interested in any political ideas and values, doesn't know their national anthem or any other national anthems, and is not interested in the past history of any governmental leaders and affairs in the world that are nothing but the product of egoism and the fuel that feeds egoism, then 'I' am not interested in attaining such citizenship, even though 'I' respect the action and decision of such human beings won't grant someone their particular national citizenship under such 'egoistic conditions, rules and regulations', that's their freedom of thinking, belief, values and action, but 'I' am not playing the game of ignorance and egoism in order to attain any particular citizenship that might or might not make life less difficult.

Being a 'rightful' citizen of any particular nation in the world of corruption, doesn't necessarily mean that there will be less difficulty or suffering in life existence arising from the ignorance of human beings. The situation in the world right now, in this present moment, and at anytime, is indeed the greatest teacher of the mind. One doesn't need to go anywhere in search for a teacher to teach oneself about ignorance and the consequences of ignorance. This world of human beings is full of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Not speaking any particular language proficiently, not living life according to any particular national and cultural belief, values and practice, not having any attachment and identification or pride towards any national or community or family identity, not interested in any political ideas and values that empowers separateness and selfishness, not knowing any national anthem, and not interested in the past history of any governmental leaders and affairs that empowers possessiveness and greed, it doesn't mean that one is not respecting all kinds of lives, or one is being disrespectful towards other people's different ways of living in accordance to a particular national and cultural belief, values and practice, or one will be intentionally creating unnecessary problems, damages and inconvenience to other people in the society, or one won't be kind and helpful towards other beings unconditionally, or one won't be looking after the general welfare of all and everyone non-discriminatively in the world of diversity, regardless of the different names and forms.

Unless the policy of a country is not at all about welcoming peaceful human beings that embrace peace and harmony among all and everyone non-discriminatively, that would help and be kind towards one another unselfishly, that welcome world peace or universal peace without possessiveness, selfishness, discrimination, hatred, bully and violence, but it's more about having their own particular political demands and agendas, to be 'recruiting' supporters and manpower that would be empowering and defending their 'power and wealth status' and 'possessions', then let it be. They want human beings that are aggressive and violent, that will fight for them to accomplish their selfish greedy ambition of conquering and possessing more and more territories and natural resources via bullying, threat, force and violence, to boost their status of power and wealth. Human beings who want peace and harmony are useless to them. Many of the people in certain nations are being manipulated by such ignorant egoistic leaders and influencers to become more and more selfish, self-righteous, self-protective, discriminating, hating and violent, where they are not interested at all in the peace and harmony among all diversities in the world, or to be looking after the welfare of all and everyone in the world of diversities non-discriminatively, but only to enhance and protect the welfare of themselves and those whom they refer as one of them.

Similarly, within a personal relationship or a family relationship, one will not be playing the game of diplomacy and grouping, empowering the ignorance and egoism in oneself and others.

The game of diplomacy and grouping is being seen as the way to develop and maintain peace and harmony within the personal relationship, the family and the society, where one is being told to keep the head down and be silent towards any forms of ill-treatment unto oneself and/or others, but that's only encouraging and empowering ignorance and corruption in the world on all levels.

Not being determined or disturbed by the ignorance of others in the world, or not fighting against the ignorance in the world, doesn't mean that one should be submissive and silent towards all kinds of ill-treatment, not walking away from such abusive situations when there's possibility to do so, and being there allowing oneself and/or others to be ill-treated by some others repeatedly and continuously, encouraging and empowering the ignorance of others.

Low self-esteem and Pride

Low self-esteem and pride is the two sides of a coin. Real confidence is there as it is when one is free from being determined by the flipping coin to be 'I' that is swaying in between low self-esteem upon failure and pride upon success.

Non-attachment and non-identification towards impermanent qualities of selfless names and forms is the basic yoga practice.

Self-esteem that doesn't need to be there at all

Regardless of the many different geographical, nationality, ancestry, ethnical, cultural, religious and social backgrounds in the world, most people have one thing in common, that is about developing and empowering self-esteem, or in other terms, self-worth, or confidence, or pride.

Self-esteem is nothing but the by-products of ignorance and egoism, and is being empowered by ignorant egoistic attachment and identification towards the quality of names and forms that is subject to impermanence and selflessness.

Similarly, the existence of all kinds of nationality, culture, religion and social class in the world are also the by-products of ignorance and egoism, and are being empowered by egoistic attachment and identification towards certain qualities of name and form, that generate separateness and discrimination which directly lead to so much unnecessary humanity problems, that also directly and indirectly relate to various degrees of psychological mental and emotional suffering in many people.

Almost everyone are being brought up in their family, their schools, their work place and the society in the way of developing and empowering the sense of self-esteem, self-worth, confidence or pride that built on certain quality of names and forms that is being recognized by their particular thinking, belief, values and practice about what is existence deserving, love deserving, acceptance deserving, success deserving, happiness deserving, praise deserving, respect deserving and pride deserving. If people don't attain or possess those quality of names and forms, then they think and believe that they or other people are not good enough for being what they are, as they are.

Many people are more or less being determined and affected by the sense of self-esteem. Or, many people are suffering from self-esteem problem that affecting themselves and their life, behavior, study, work and relationship with everyone and everything. Some people even hurt themselves due to being disturbed by the sense of self-esteem that they were told to develop in certain way, but didn't turn out to be the way that they would like it to be.

People think and believe that in order to help those who would hurt themselves due to being disturbed by the sense of self-esteem is by empowering their self-esteem by helping them to build up a stronger self and group identity attaching and identifying with certain qualities of names and forms, by helping them to be equipped with certain 'good' quality and the ability to achieve certain achievement in order to allow them to see or realize something in them that are worthy for them to feel good, meaningful and proud of. But that doesn't really help, as it not just doesn't remove the root cause of such 'disturbs' which is ignorance and egoism, but it empowers the ignorance and egoism.

Self-esteem doesn't need to be existing at all in anyone for being existing and living in the world as a person in one's life existence or being part of the diverse community in the world globally.

Many personal psychological mental or emotional problems deriving from self-esteem are directly and indirectly contributing to the many unnecessary family, relationship and social problems in the world.

Everyone's life and well-being and the world is much better off without the need of the presence of self-esteem influencing everyone individually and socially.

Both low self-esteem and high self-esteem (pride) that built on certain quality of names and forms contribute equally to the many unnecessary problems in one's life and relationship with everyone.

Those who are free from being determined by the sense of self-esteem, self-worth, confidence and pride, being free from either low or high self-esteem, self-worth, confidence and pride, they are not being determined by any quality of names and forms to be who they are, to be peaceful and happy, or not. They are not being influenced, or manipulated, or 'controlled' by any particular political, national, ethnical, cultural, religious, or social thinking, belief, values and practice in the world. They are free from separateness and discrimination towards all and everything. They are peaceful as they are. They don't generate actions and reactions that hurt oneself and/or others in their personal life and in the world that derived from psychological mental and emotional problems.

Unfortunately, 'control freak' exists in the family (especially in parenting), in human relationships, in the schools, in the work place, in the society, and more importantly under any religion and country, to 'mould' and 'herd' people to be and not to be in certain ways, in order to gratify their personal or group ambition/desire/self-interest as well as to 'protect', 'empower' and 'sustain' their particular thinking, belief, values and practice.

Human beings are being told to inherit, adopt, nurture, empower, protect and sustain their personal and group identity of a particular family, ancestry, culture, ethnicity, birth place, community, society, social class, nationality and religious or spiritual belief and practice, and be prideful and protective towards their particular identity and their family, ancestry, culture, ethnicity, birth place, community, society, social class, nationality and religion or spirituality. That's where all kinds of separateness, discrimination, offensiveness, dissatisfaction, fear, anger, hatred, oppression, prejudice, unjust and violence in the world come from.

There are quite many people, especially those who think and believe that they are good, righteous, moral and superior people, who are being proud of themselves for discriminating against someone or something they dislike and disagree with, while there are also 'really good and kind' people who want to protest against all kinds of discrimination in the world, but they might not be aware of the root cause of 'discrimination'. Unwittingly, they are supporting and empowering the root cause of discrimination all the time in themselves, their family, their school, their work place and in their society and country, while actively protesting against discrimination of any kind.

To stop all kinds of discrimination in the world efficiently can only be achieved by removing the root cause of discrimination, that is ignorance and egoism, and all the by-products of ignorance and egoism, such like self-esteem, self-worth, confidence, pride, nationalism, patriotism, authoritarianism, ethicalism, religionism, and etc. While the empowerment of these names and forms is nothing but fueling discrimination in the world.

People don't just discriminate all the others, but they also discriminate themselves due to the presence and absence of certain qualities in themselves that they like and dislike, agree and disagree with, desire and don't desire. People were being brought up and empowered in the way to have high expectation towards themselves, which also leads towards having certain expectation towards other people in their family, relationship, community and the world to be or not to be in certain way. Most people think and believe that that is the right way to be successful, happy and meaningful. That's their freedom of thinking and belief. And the world is under the influence of such thinking and belief, and being what it is.

The teachings and practice of yoga and Buddhism is mainly to free one's mind from such ignorance and egoism by letting go or abandoning all kinds of personal and group identity and attachment, for realizing unconditional non-discriminative compassion which leads to individual peace that contributes to universal world peace.

If the human or non-human beings in the world are suffering and living in fear under the presence of discrimination, anger, hatred and violence under the intention of ‘protecting’ and ‘upholding’ any particular teachings and belief with certain names and forms that different people attaching onto and identifying with as who they are, where their self-esteem, self-worth, confidence and pride built from, that supposedly ‘preached’ about peace and harmony and loving kindness, but then the human leaders of that particular teachings and belief encourage the believers, or followers, or practitioners to be violent and hurtful against anything and anyone that they recognized as ‘intimidation’, ‘insult’, ‘belittling’, ‘offensiveness’, or ‘disrespectfulness’ towards their particular teachings and belief, then it doesn’t really serve any purpose of promoting and upholding universal peace and harmony and loving kindness in the world at all.

Everyone claim that their religion and culture is the religion and culture of love, peace and kindness. How true is that, when there are constant egoistic violent and hurtful actions and reactions towards what they dislike, disagree with and don’t want.

Unfortunately, deep ignorance and egoism hinder the minds from reasoning and inquiring towards the truth of everything.

Such violent and hurtful actions and reactions also exist in those who think and believe that they are the practitioners of yoga or Buddhism. That is the power of ignorance.

Ignorance exists in all and everyone, unless someone starts to be aware of it and do something about it.

It's not the fault of any religion or culture or belief and practice, if human beings are behaving ignorantly out of ignorance and egoism. But, it shows that whether human beings have a religion, culture, belief and practice, or not, or what type of religion, culture, belief and practice people have, it's not important at all. It's about whether human minds are free or not free from ignorance and egoism. That is a universal teaching that applies to all and everyone, regardless of all the different qualities of names and forms that everyone attaching onto and identifying with.

Inquire 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.

The consequences of pride and self-righteousness

Intelligence + education + knowledge + awareness + ability + opportunity
+ passion + ambitious + idealistic positive thinking to create a 'perfect' world the way that 'I' think it should be + craving and aversion + impurities of anger, hatred, frustration, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurt, guilt, fear and worry + pride + self-righteousness + trying to 'educate' or 'change' other people's thinking, belief or behavior that 'I' don't like and don't agree with to be the way that 'I' like and agree with
= egoistic actions derived from selfish intention and aspiration based on personal thinking, belief, desires, ideal, attachment, identification, judgment, expectation
= the possibility of a more messy world with more impurities and ignorant behavior/actions/reactions

Intelligence + education + knowledge + awareness + ability + opportunity
- passion - ambitious - idealistic positive thinking to create a 'perfect' world the way that 'I' think it should be - craving and aversion - impurities of anger, hatred, frustration, dissatisfaction, disappointment, hurt, guilt, fear and worry - pride - self-righteousness - trying to 'educate' or 'change' other people's thinking, belief or behavior that 'I' don't like and don't agree with to be the way that 'I' like and agree with
= selfless actions derived from selflessness, wisdom and compassion
= the possibility of a less messy world with less impurities or ignorant behavior/actions/reactions

When we don't like and disagree with the world being what it is and want to change the world to be the way that we think it should be, when we think there are people in the world are ignorant and selfish who behave ignorantly and selfishly, and we try to perform 'good' and 'righteous' actions to 'educate' or 'change' those whom we think are ignorant and selfish, with intention or hope or expectation to change their thinking, belief and behavior to be less ignorant and selfish (because we think we are better than them or we know better than them), will only provoke/generate more impurities and ignorant behavior in the world. This is because due to ignorance, selfishness and pride, people don't like to be 'educated' or 'changed' or 'controlled' or 'interfered' by anybody, they will be very offended and feel being challenged or insulted or humiliated, and hence, they will react under the influence of unhappiness, dissatisfaction, defensiveness, pride and anger, and be inclined/provoked to perform more ignorant actions and selfish behavior.

None can take away another being's ignorance. It has to come from oneself being aware of ignorance in oneself and self-initiated to be free from ignorance.

If we really want (to help) the world to be free from all sorts of ignorant thinking, belief and behavior, then mind our own mind, to free one's mind from ignorance and ignorant thinking, belief and behavior, is the most efficient way to help the world to have less ignorant beings and less ignorant thinking, belief and behavior.

Have peace in oneself if we want (to help) the world to have (more) peace.

The mind only knows what it knows

Different people teach and guide other people in different ways or methods to perform the yoga practice, to inquire and reflect upon the teachings of yoga, to purify their minds, to eliminate ignorance, egoism and impurities, to realize unconditional love and peace that is undetermined by the qualities of names and forms that are impermanent and selfless, that is always there as it is, but this unconditional love and peace is unknown to the mind due to the veil of ignorance and impurities.

Not all who teach yoga to other people are evolving simultaneously with the similar realization through their own sincere practice. It's like peeling away many different layers of ignorance/impurities to allow the mind to see the one knowledge but it appears to be in many different names and forms due to the different layers of ignorance and impurities. Meanwhile, all these knowledge appear in different names and forms will continue to lead the impure, but open mind towards the pure consciousness, until the deepest/last layer of ignorance/impurities is completely removed, the mind sees the truth as it is, selfless, oneness, nameless, formless, attributeless, birthless and deathless.

When different people learn and practice yoga under different people, they might learn different teachings and ways of practice that are distinct from one another. Some might like and agree with certain teachings and ways of practice, while some others don't like and disagree with the same teachings and ways of practice. It is not because these teachings and ways of practice are good or not good, are right or not right, but they are mere different degrees/stages of realization. Also, different minds have different life experiences, temperament and personality, and hence, different minds react differently towards the different teachings and ways of practice taught by different people.

It's the matter of whether the minds are open, or not, towards the different teachings/knowledge/ways of practice, by investigate/inquire/reflect upon the truth of all the different teachings/knowledge/ways of practice that they come in contact with from different people with different degrees/stages of realization.

There is nothing to be compared or argued about. The mind only knows what it knows, and what it doesn't know, it doesn't know. And there's nothing wrong with there are things that the mind doesn't know. It's more harmful/dangerous when the mind is blind-believing in or propagating many things that it doesn't really know whether they are true or untrue, just because those were what they heard from or taught by their beloved elders or teachers, or knowledge that they had read and accumulated from books, or the opinions and points of view that are agreed, liked, shared and supported by many other people or majority of the people. More important is that what the mind agrees or disagrees with and what the mind likes or dislikes under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, are not necessarily true/untrue.

It's a great obstacle for the mind to evolve, to go beyond the 'partial/incomplete/impure' reality that the mind perceives under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, if the mind is not open towards what is unknown to the mind, to investigate the truth of something that is unknown or unfamiliar to the mind, but it reacts with intense rejection/disagreement towards something that it doesn't know, or that is different from or contradicted with its existing thinking and belief and familiarity.

Just like people who never come in contact with apples before, would deny the existence of apples when being informed by other people whom have come in contact with apples. The minds that are open, neither believe nor disbelieve towards the existence of apples, until they directly come in contact with apples. Even so, the apples that were informed by others might appear to be different from the apples that they experience, but the origin of the different varieties (names and forms) of apples is rooted in the one same source, or else it's not apple, it's something else. Even if it's something else, such like oranges, all kinds of names and forms are still existing on the one same truth - impermanence and selflessness. Beyond different kinds of impermanent and selfless names and forms, it's namelessness, formlessness, attributelessness, birthlessness and deathlessness. Realizing this, all kinds of fear and superstitious beliefs vanished. All kinds of positiveness/negativeness, meaningfulness/meaninglessness, goodness/badness, auspiciousness/inauspiciousness, happiness/unhappiness, suffering/non-suffering are nothing but the products of ignorant and impure minds.

Many 'yoga teachers' teach or guide other people about yoga that is about promoting positive thinking and good actions, accumulating good karma and developing 'positive mind power' to fulfill the desire of achieving a good and meaningful life, because that is all that they know about yoga, so far. And there's nothing wrong with that.

While some teach or guide other people about yoga that is beyond 'promoting positive thinking and good actions, accumulating good karma and developing 'positive mind power' to fulfill the desire of achieving a good and meaningful life', because they have realized the higher knowledge of oneness, namelessness, formlessness, attributelessness, selflessness, desirelessness, birthlessness and deathlessness. There's neither positive nor negative. There's neither good nor bad. There's neither enjoyment nor non-enjoyment. There's neither suffering nor end of suffering. There's nothing to be known, nothing to be understood, nothing to be perceived, nothing to be connected with. There's no other(s).

'Yoga teachers' must be vigilant to be cautious of (tiny) pride arising in one's mind due to accumulated knowledge and achievements deriving from 'reading books on yoga', 'attending yoga courses', 'attaining certifications', or 'teaching yoga/yoga classes to other people'. Praise, compliments, supports, agreements, appreciation, honour, respect, glorification or idolization from the yoga students, might be feeding the sense of pride in the mind unwittingly, if one is not cautious of it. One would think and feel that 'I am a good yoga teacher' or 'I am an experienced yoga teacher' or 'I am well-loved and appreciated by all these students'. Those who are aware of the mischievous egoistic nature in one's mind, will allow other people to show praise, compliments, supports, agreements, appreciation, honour, respect, glorification or idolization, or not, but one doesn't interested in receiving any of these at all, and there's neither attachment nor identification towards all these names and forms, then one is considered 'safe'.

It's the same as 'yoga students' who receive praise and compliments from the teachers or other fellow students, who have been accumulated knowledge and achievements deriving from 'reading books on yoga', 'attending yoga courses' or 'attaining certifications', who think and believe that oneself is 'advanced yogi/yoga practitioner' after practicing yoga for a long time, or having attended many 'advanced yoga classes/courses' and attaining many 'yoga certificates'.

Those who are wise, won't be telling themselves and others that "I am a wise being. I am very wise."
Those who have been advancing in their yoga practice, won't be telling themselves and others that "I am an advanced yogi. I am very advanced in yoga practice. I am practicing advanced yoga."

Beware of pride and self-glorification.

Be free.

Yoga classes, yoga courses and yoga retreats?

Those (the minds) who are free, who are peaceful, who are free from ignorance, egoism, doubts and impurities, they don't need to learn or practice yoga. They don't need to attend yoga classes, or yoga courses, or yoga retreats.

Those (the minds) who are not free, who are not peaceful, who are not free from ignorance, egoism, doubts and impurities, they might want to learn and practice yoga, by attending yoga classes, or yoga courses, or yoga retreats, to learn and practice yoga under one or a few yoga practitioner(s) (teachers) who know the teachings and practice of yoga.

Somehow, some of those (the minds) who are not free from ignorance and egoism, who are not peaceful, who are interested in attending yoga classes, or yoga courses, or yoga retreats, are ignorant towards oneself is being over-powered by pride and arrogance. They are not really interested in 'learning' and 'practicing' yoga under the guidance of other yoga practitioners. They think they know quite a lot about the teachings and practice. They think they have been doing yoga for quite some time or a long time. They think they are quite 'experienced' and 'qualified' yoga practitioners or yoga teachers, as they have attended one or many yoga workshops, yoga courses, or yoga teachers training courses. They think they are quite 'advanced' on the path of yoga. They are not 'open-minded' to learn and practice yoga under other people's guidance to be free from ignorance, egoism, doubts and impurities. They attached strongly onto their habitual mind behavior pattern and their way of thinking and belief and practice. They cannot be opened to investigate or experience something that is different from their thinking, belief and practice.

They want to interfere with how the people running the yoga schools, the yoga studios, or the yoga retreat centres, and what the teachers teach and how the teachers teach the classes, or courses, or retreats. They criticize the way of the people running and teaching the classes, courses, or retreats, about the format, the schedule, the accommodation, the facilities, the environment, the staff, or anything that they think it's not the way that they like it to be, or not the way that they think or expect it should be. There are many things that they dislike and disagree with, that they cannot tolerate or accommodate. They reluctant to adjust, adapt and accommodate something that is different from their habitual comfort zone, thinking, belief and practice.

They expect/demand the people to run the yoga schools, the yoga studios, or the yoga retreat centres the way that they like it to be, and they expect/demand the teachers to teach what they like and want to practice and don't teach what they don't like or don't want to practice. They expect/demand the teachers to teach the classes, the courses, the retreats the way that they like it to be. They get very annoyed and irritated when the teachers teach something that they don't like and don't want to learn or practice, or the people running the classes, the courses, or the retreats the way that they don't like and don't agree with. They expect/demand everything about the entire space of learning and practicing yoga to be the way that they like it to be, or the way that they think it should be.

These people (the minds) don't just not really learning or practicing yoga, though they think and believe that they are very 'serious and advanced and certified' yoga practitioners and yoga teachers, but they also generate inconvenience, disturbance, doubt and obstacle for others who are interested to learn and practice yoga, those who 'are aware of' or 'know' their minds are not yet completely free from ignorance, egoism, doubts and impurities. The minds that are free, they won't be affected or influenced by the ignorance and impurities of others, but most minds are not free yet, they will still be affected and influenced by the ignorance and impurities of others. But, it doesn't mean that these minds are bad or negative. All minds are free to behave the way that they want to behave and react the way that they want to react, whether they are aware of their own behavior and reaction, or not.

And hence, when one thinks and believes that oneself is an 'experienced' and 'advanced' and 'certified' yoga practitioner or yoga teacher, and one wants to inform/tell other people about how experienced and advanced one is on the path of yoga, then know that one doesn't know what is yoga, yet. Those who know yoga, they have no attachment or identification towards the experiences or levels of their practice, or be proud and arrogant about what they know or realize from their practice. They mind their own practice and they don't need to attend yoga classes, yoga courses, or yoga retreats.

Those who are not sure or have doubts about their practice or what they think they know, and are interested in attending yoga classes, yoga courses, or yoga retreats to learn and practice yoga under the guidance of other people, must learn how to allow the mind to be opened to learn and practice yoga under another person or other people, while not by pushing away or arguing about something that the mind dislikes and disagrees with, but to investigate the truth of everything that the mind comes in contact with through direct experience.

What the mind agrees with and what the mind disagrees with, are not necessarily the truth.

One doesn't need to like and agree with everything, even if it's part of the teachings and practice of yoga, but remain equanimous, being undisturbed or undetermined by what the mind dislikes and disagrees with, is already what yoga practice is about.

Be free.