Self-righteousness that hurt and destroy all and everything out of anger, hatred, fear, and greed

It's normal and common that many minds are having the sense of pride and superiority towards their own existence, origin, background, belief, ideas, values, desires, visions, actions, and reactions, and have the sense of self-righteousness towards all and everything based on their particular way of thinking, belief, ideas, values, and desires.

Out of self-righteousness being righteous towards many things based on their own particular way of thinking, belief, ideas, values, and desires, they would hurt and destroy all and everything that they think and believe as 'bad' and 'wrong', or potentially 'hurtful' and 'destructive' unto them and what is theirs, or potential 'obstacles' obstructing them to achieve what they want to achieve, out of anger and hatred, as well as fear and defensiveness, on top of greed and possessiveness.

Out of the sense of fear and defensiveness, where they think and feel that themselves are being intimidated by the strong presence of some others, and hence, they would hurt and destroy what they think and believe is the potential intimidation that can be intimidating them, even when none and nothing is intimidating them.

Fear of being hurt or attacked by some others, one would attack and destroy the potential 'enemies' FIRST, even when the others have no intention and didn't do anything to hurt or attack anyone. 

For example, there is fear in the people towards the potential risk of could be hurt by the poisonous snakes (that have no intention to hurt anyone unless when they needed to defend themselves only if they are being disturbed, threatened, and attacked), and hence, the people want to hurt and destroy or get rid of all the poisonous snakes in the surrounding environment that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

There is enormous greed in the minds towards possessing and hoarding land and space, food and energy resources and wealth, and endless accumulation of power and control that can gratify all their greedy desires and ambitions, and hence, they desire to invade and conquer and claim ownership towards all the land and space that they think and believe that has something or everything that they want, in order to gratify all their boundless desires, at all costs, of hurting and destroying all and everything, under the name of 'self-righteousness' and 'self-defense' reacting towards 'the existing threat upon them that is actually inflicted by their own self-righteousness, fear, and intentional annoying disturbing behavior unto the others', in order to achieve what they want to achieve.

"We are limited. We cannot be any stronger. We are not as strong as others. And so, we cannot let others to become stronger than us. We need to cause damages unto others, so that others cannot and won't become stronger than us."

There are minds deliberately generate ongoing disturbing annoying behavior unto the others that they dislike and disagree with, to provoke them to react in certain way, that would give them the righteous excuse to hurt and punish, or even destroy the others that they dislike and disagree with.

Just as certain people have fear towards poisonous snakes, and hence, they want to get rid of the poisonous snakes that are just being there as they are without any intention to hurt or intimidate anyone, and upon the poisonous snakes react under the threat of being disturbed and attacked by the people in order to be defending/protecting themselves, the people think and say, "Look. They are so bad and hurtful. They deserved to be destroyed and eliminated from the world. I am doing everyone a favor, by hurting them and getting rid of them so that they won't be able to hurt me and my family and all of you. I am doing this to defend the safety of myself and my family and all of you. Also, after we clear out all the poisonous snakes from this land, we can do whatever we want on this land and take whatever we want from this land."

The minds that have correct understanding, they respect all and everyone as they are, even if they don't agree with all and everyone. They don't possess any land or space claiming as their land or their space, because they know that all lands and space don't belong to anyone or anything. All and everyone are merely momentarily sharing this land and space with all and everything that are different from one another, that might not like or agree with one another, and that's okay. If there are some others that are non-understanding and behaving hurtfully and destructively, they would just stay away from these minds as much as possible, minimize or avoid any kind of dealing or interaction with them. Leave them alone, let them be what they are, while allowing them to be aware of their own mind and their behavior, or not.

The minds that understand, they never feel intimidated by anyone or anything, not even death, not to say, the ones that claimed to be the most powerful and influential people, or the most successful and wealthy people, and carry the highest ranking, class, title, or status in the world. They never admire or look down on anyone. They are free from superiority and inferiority. They are free from self-esteem and self-worth. They don't need to please anyone and they don't need to be pleased by anyone.

All are selfless. All are impermanent. All are limited and conditional. All will change, decay, disintegrate, and pass away, regardless of whether comfortably, gracefully, or elegantly, or not.

Reflect. Inquire. Realize.

Be free from ignorance.

Be free from self-righteousness.

Be free from fear.

Be free from greed and possessiveness. 

Be free from "I need to attack you first even before you do anything 'bad', 'wrong', 'hurtful', or 'destructive' unto me. To show you and all the others that I am strong. I can bully you, but you can't bully me. If you threaten me for bullying you, then it proves that you are bad and wrong, and you deserved to be punished for threatening me. I bully you is all out of self-defense, because I strongly think and believe that you would be bad and hurtful unto me and my family and everyone else, and so, it's totally alright and nothing wrong for me to bully you and hurt you as much as I want, so that you can't hurt me even if I am hurting you. And I want to hurt you, because I think and believe that you are bad, and you deserve punishment."

That is seriously mentally ill. Unfortunately, many minds are indeed not aware of themselves are thinking and behaving in such way. These minds are drowning in painful suffering being lost in ignorance.

"We are the good and righteous people. We need to punish and get rid of all the other bad and wrongful people in the world," and "You are bad and wrong because you don't do exactly what I want and expect you to do." That is what the self-righteous minds strongly think and believe and behave.

Such is the world of ignorance.

Ignorance is the most serious form of mental illness that cause intentional or unintentional hurtful destructive behavior unto oneself and/or others and the surrounding environment in a world that doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

And this ignorance exists in everywhere, where the minds are, in the family, in the relationships, in any community, or in any dealing and affair.

None can remove the ignorance in others.

It's the freedom of the minds towards whether they are aware of ignorance in themselves, or not, and whether they want to be free from ignorance, or not.

It's the freedom of all minds to behave the way that they are, and it's their own responsibility towards all their behaviors/actions/reactions and the consequences of all that.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Why self-righteousness is not yoga practice?

Some yoga enthusiasts are not free from self-righteousness where they think and believe that self-righteousness is a good and upright quality that compliment their yoga practice.

Due to deep rooted ignorance and egoism, there are minds that think and believe that they are good and righteous people and seeing themselves are somehow better human beings than some others whom they perceive as bad and wrongful human beings, and for the sake of humanity, they should stand up for righteousness and condemn those who think and behave in the way that is against what they think and believe is good and rightful way of thinking and behavior, that is bad and wrong, based on their understanding and expectation towards how people or human beings should or shouldn't behave.

None can 'tell' or 'teach' another being/person/mind/community about "This is right and that is wrong." as there's neither right nor wrong, but just different minds judging everything differently based on their own particular thinking, belief, values, practice and preferences, and to behave, act and react in certain way. Siddhartha Gautama Buddha never said or taught about "This is right and that is wrong." even though there's the Eight Fold Path observations for the mind to purify and silent itself to allow the mind to inquire the truth of everything, to see things as they are, beyond the limited/conditioned judgment under the influence of different egoistic worldly thinking and beliefs.

It has to come from the mind itself to inquire into the truth of self-righteousness, where it doesn't exist in selflessness, namelessness, formlessness, attributelessness.

Just as the ideas of patriotism, loyalty, family ties, friendship, relationship, connection, society, community, country, nationality, pride/shame, deserving/undeserving, meaningfulness/meaninglessness, or positiveness/negativeness, are all part of the play of the ego and egoism derived from ignorance. The mind only knows what it knows and what it thinks and believes about what it knows. The mind cannot comprehend what it doesn't know, what it doesn't think, what is beyond all kinds of knowledge that the mind could learn and remember. Just as the ego (the idea/perception of I) cannot comprehend 'selflessness' or 'I-lessness'. And hence, the yoga practice is all about annihilating the ego and egoism to allow the mind to realize selflessness and see things as they are, transcending all the worldly egoistic thinking and beliefs.

Being conditioned by egoistic thinking pattern unwittingly

The minds can still be functioning under the influence of conditional egoistic thinking pattern to behave, judge, expect, aspire, act and react, unwittingly, even if the minds have 'good' intention to be supporting and upholding 'good' values/practice/behavior, and believe in performing 'good' actions and standing up for protecting 'goodness and righteousness' in the world.

Yoga practice is to free the mind from conditional egoistic thinking pattern that most minds are unaware of, while thinking and believing that those thinking and beliefs are the important values of humanity.

Yoga practitioners can perform self-introspection to find out whether one's mind is being conditioned by egoistic thinking pattern unwittingly, by asking oneself these questions, as most minds are unaware of itself is being conditioned to think and believe in such way, to behave, judge, expect, aspire, act and react.

- Is there a strong sense of belonging towards a particular name and form of family/relationship/friendship/social group/community/country/nationality/ethnicity/culture/religion/school/spirituality/profession/politic/any form of practice and etc, and one would do one's best to uphold and protect that particular name and form that the mind thinks and believes, 'This is where I belong, that I am being proud of being part of it, and I have the duty and responsibility to do my best to be protecting it from being hurt, damaged or destroyed by what I think and believe as negativity, badness and wrongfulness', or I don't know where I belong and it's important for me to be in searching for something/somewhere that I belonged to, that can give me the sense of belonging?

- Does the mind thinks and believes that patriotism and loyalty towards something/somewhere that one belonged to, is a great value or quality that everyone should be cherished and be proud of, where 'Betrayal of any kind is something terribly wrong and unforgivable, and those who commit any form of betrayal must be condemned and punished accordingly'?

- Does the mind thinks and believes that there are certain things/objects/lives that it likes and agrees with, that it understands as something important and appreciates very much shouldn't be subject to 'impermanent changes' and don't deserve 'extinction'?

Not that patriotism and loyalty or upholding something that one's mind thinks and believes is 'good and righteous' is something bad or wrong, but it promotes 'separateness' and 'discrimination' where it doesn't allow the mind to go beyond the conditional thinking pattern that hinders the mind from realizing selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, namelessness, formlessness and attributelessness, which is the ultimate goal of yoga. Similarly, there's nothing wrong with showing great appreciation towards something that the mind perceives as important, lovable and agreeable, but the intense attachment towards something that the mind thinks and believes is important, lovable and agreeable, and not allowing everything being what they are, where everything will change and disappear, is what hinders the mind from realizing 'yoga', or be free from ignorance and suffering.

Patriotism/Loyalty and the sense of belonging or the need to find where one belonged to don't exist in selflessness. Due to ignorance and egoism, many yoga practitioners are still being conditioned by such egoistic thinking pattern, where they think and believe that they belong to certain 'yoga lineage', or 'yoga family', or 'yoga community'. Similarly, the minds that are free from ignorance and egoism can be appreciating all the lovable and agreeable names and forms, but without attachment and are able to respect the law of nature (impermanence and selflessness) as it is, and be able to let them go, in peace.

Patriotism/loyalty and self-righteousness is not yoga practice. Yoga practitioners must work cautiously and diligently to free the mind from such egoistic thinking/belief/values/practice in order to free the mind from ignorance and egoism, to realize selflessness/oneness/non-separateness/namelessness/formlessness/attributelessness, that leads the mind towards right discrimination towards the truth of everything and non-discrimination towards all the different qualities of names and forms that co-existing in this space, which all are subject to impermanence and selflessness.

Never tell people who live in difficult life condition about what they should and shouldn't eat

The realization of unconditional peace is not determined by what people eat or don't eat, or whether one is eating 'pure non-animal products vegetarian food' or 'animal products non-vegetarian food'.

By consuming 'pure and clean food' or 'non-animal products vegetarian diet' doesn't guarantee that one is or will be free from ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness and suffering. Just like by performing many years of 'yoga practice' also doesn't guarantee that one is free from ignorance and the by-products of ignorance. One might still be overpowered by the sense of self-righteousness, pride and superiority, and hence, be disturbed very much by what the mind perceives/recognizes as bad, wrong, negativity, inferiority, hurtful, offensive, insulting, disrespectful, undeserving, disappointing, painful sorrow, or suffering. People can be observing vegetarian diet due to cultural/religious practice for many years, and feel proud for being 'compassionate vegetarian' or being one of the member of a culture/religion, but still the mind might be not free from ignorance, egoism, impurities, restlessness and suffering.

People who consume 'particular type of non-animal products vegetarian food' with the sense of self-righteousness, pride and superiority, might be over-powered by self-righteousness and would criticize/condemn others who consume 'animal products non-vegetarian food', or vice versa. This is not part of the yoga practice.

Whether it's part of the spiritual/cultural/religious/environmental/ethical practice, or due to some other reasons that people choose to adopt a particular type of food choice based on one's thinking/belief/thoughtfulness/conscience, but we cannot tell or interfere with people what they should or shouldn't eat, or 'criticizing' or 'condemning' those whom we think they don't adopt 'that particular type of food choice' for some reasons, as we think that we are somehow more superior than others because of our superior food choice.

Just like we ourselves want to practice yoga, but we can't go into people's life and tell people what they should and shouldn't practice, or how people should and shouldn't think/believe/behave/act and react, and we can't criticize/condemn anyone who don't like yoga, or who don't practice yoga, or who aren't interested in yoga, or who don't practice yoga as it is, even though we see yoga as something good and beneficial for many people, provided if people allow their minds to be open, unattached towards any particular thinking and belief that has been conditioning/influencing how they think, judge, feel, expect, act and react towards all the names and forms, as those who attached strongly onto their particular thinking and belief cannot be open to inquire the truth of other teachings/practice that are different from their own thinking and belief, as they would instantly reject and object what is different from and contradicted with their existing social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking and belief, of what they think they know, and do not want to learn/inquire/know any further about other teachings/practice that they disagree with based on their own thinking and belief, as well as there's fear towards knowing the truth of what if their own thinking and belief from young until now is not necessarily true, but people just blind-believing and blind-following those thinking and beliefs, and fear of 'sin' and 'punishment' due to 'losing faith in their thinking and belief', if they start questioning the truth of their thinking and belief. We can only share our knowledge and experience in yoga with those who are interested in yoga and they want to learn from our knowledge and experience, and they are ready to allow their minds to be open to inquire the truth of everything. Even so, we can't expect anyone of them to practice yoga diligently as it is. It's their own freedom and responsibility whether they want to practice yoga diligently as it is, or not, after we share the knowledge and experience with them.

People have the rights or freedom to choose what they want to eat or don't eat, even if our minds feel disagree with and disturbed by other people's choice of food consumption.

Although it's everyone's freedom if they want to interfere with other people's life, but those who truly practice yoga will not be interested in interfering with other people's life. Never tell people who live in difficult life condition, who are or have been going through many difficulties and hardship in life about what they should eat or shouldn't eat. People might be suffering and dying from hunger and malnutrition or diseases, due to poverty and lack of educational background being bullied, discriminated and exploited by the commercial world, and most probably don't make enough 'money' to buy/get enough food not to say 'clean' and 'nutritious' food even after working very hard for many hours a day. Imagine people who have a rather easy comfortable life, who don't need to suffer much hardship and difficult condition in life, go around and tell other people who have no choice but have to be doing hard labour work with very low income for survival while struggling to provide food and shelter for oneself and/or the family about what they should eat and shouldn't eat.

Keep one's thinking/belief/practice/food choice/way of life to oneself, and respect other people's different thinking/beliefs/practices/food choices/ways of life, even if they are contradicted with our thinking/belief/practice/food choice/way of life. If people want to follow our way of life/practice/food choice, that's their freedom, but not because we expect and believe that everyone should be like us.

There's nothing wrong if out of our own conscience/ethical reason that we want to adopt a particular type of food choice, but we also respect others for their different type of food choice, without criticizing/condemning other people's choices of food consumption that we don't like or don't agree with, that we think is bad and wrong, unethical or unhealthy.

Go beyond the name and form of 'vegetarian' and 'non-vegetarian'. It's not who you are/what you are, as many people, including yoga enthusiasts like to say, "You are what you eat." No doubt that food intake directly influences the energy field, the physical condition and the state of the mind, but the minds that have realized selflessness/namelessness/formlessness/attributelessness/non-separateness, it goes beyond all the identifications, names, forms, attributes, dualities, separateness, energy field, the physical condition, the state of the mind, good and bad karma, easy and difficult life condition, desirable and undesirable life experiences. It's part of the teaching of yoga of 'Transcending all the Gunas, energy field, names and forms, attributes/qualities, dualities, the physical condition and the states of the mind'. Whatever the mind thinks and identifies as 'I', is merely ignorance.

Self-righteousness is not yoga practice (2)

Teaching yoga, or practicing yoga, is not about 'I am an unique spiritual being' being chosen by 'God' or 'Guru', being initiated/assigned/given a righteous 'duty' from 'God' or 'Guru', being 'self-righteous' for helping 'God' or 'Guru' to patrol/judge/control/criticize/discipline/punish other people's actions and reactions, or to be interfering with other people's thinking/belief/behavior/practice that are different from one's thinking/belief/behavior/practice, that the mind thinks and believes as 'bad' and 'wrong', and interfering with other people's different ways of life, actions and reactions, mental and physical activities that one's mind doesn't like and doesn't agree with, that one's mind thinks and believes as 'contradicting' with the teachings and practice of yoga.

As all these 'thinking' and 'actions' coming from the mind acting and reacting towards the world of names and forms that the mind comes in contact with/perceives/experiences/acknowledges are nothing but the play of egoism born out of ignorance. Although most minds would think and believe that they are being the 'good spiritual beings' acting on behalf of 'God' or 'Guru', or upholding what they think and believe is 'supremacy', 'authority', or 'righteousness'.


Teaching yoga is merely sharing the knowledge derived from one's direct experience and self-realization, to give guidance to those who come to them to seek guidance to be learning and practicing yoga, while allowing everyone to be what they are, whether they want to take the guidance, or not; whether they want to learn and practice yoga as it is, or not; whether they want to develop awareness, correct understanding, initiative and self-discipline to discipline their own minds, or not; whether they are aware of all the egoistic urges/intentions behind all their actions and reactions, or not; whether they want to restrict their own mental and physical activities, to purify their minds to be free from egoism, impurities and restlessness, to silent the modifications of the mind, or not; and whether they want to perform inquiry towards the truth of everything and be free from ignorance, or not.

There's no egoistic idea/desire/intention of "I want to be a yoga teacher to teach yoga to other people." or "I am a yoga teacher performing action of teaching yoga to other people."

Practicing yoga is also about allowing everyone and everything to be what they are, that everyone and everything are impermanent and selfless, while 'working' diligently to free one's mind from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Those who understand this, either they don't need to perform any practice at all as they are peaceful as they are where their minds are free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, or if they are aware of the existence of ignorance, egoism and impurities in the minds, they will mind their own practice to discipline, to purify and to silent their own minds, while allowing all the other minds to be what they are, to be evolving as they are.

If 'God' or 'Guru' exists, they are 'the selfless/mindless silent witness of pure consciousness', being undisturbed/unaffected/uninfluenced/unchanged/unbothered by all the existing impermanent and selfless names and forms of different thinking/belief/behavior/way of life/actions/reactions of everyone and the consequences of that, or whatever is happening in 'the world of ignorant egoistic impure minds functioning under ignorance, egoism and impurities'. If 'God' and 'Guru' exist, they don't have egoism, or the 'self-righteous' urge or intention derived from egoism to be interfering with/patrolling/judging/controlling/criticizing/disciplining/punishing anyone or anything. If they have egoism, or the 'self-righteous' urge or intention derived from egoism to be interfering with/patrolling/judging/controlling/criticizing/disciplining/punishing everyone or everything, making sure everyone and everything 'to be the way that I think it should be', then they are not really God or Guru.

Such like some people would inflict anger, hatred, ill-will and violence towards others out of the excuse of 'upholding peace' or 'upholding righteousness'. This is not yoga practice, although it's everyone's freedom for what they think and believe, and how they behave, act and react.

"In the name of God, I condemn you to hell." or "These are bad and evil people, I hope that they will be punished with great suffering that they deserved." Quite many minds/people would think and speak in such way 'proudly'. No wonder, many of the saints and sages in the past renounced the world and retreated from the society/community to avoid wasting energy from dealing with such affairs.

Those who truly practice yoga, they withdraw the outgoing tendency of the mind, turning the mind inward to be 'working' diligently towards attaining/reaching that 'pure consciousness of the selfless/mindless silent witness', where they go beyond the egoistic urge/intention of interfering with/patrolling/judging/controlling/criticizing/disciplining/punishing anyone or anything.

If one is aware of this 'self-righteous' thinking and behavior existing in one's mind, and is aware of oneself constantly feels dissatisfied, or frustrated, or disturbed, or angered, or offended by other people's different thinking/belief/practice/behavior/way of life/actions and reactions that one's mind dislikes and disagrees with, and couldn't help oneself being over-powered by the 'self-righteous' urge or intention to be interfering with other people's different thinking/belief/practice/behavior/way of life/actions and reactions, then either one can try to help oneself by developing will-power to free one's mind from this self-righteous thinking and behavior, or one can try to seek 'professional helps' from the many 'psychiatric professionals', to have peace in oneself and stop generating 'disharmony' and 'unrest' into the surrounding environment, being free from restless impurities of dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, hatred, jealousy, possessiveness, authoritarianism, offensiveness, defensiveness, hurts, hostility, animosity, aggressiveness, violence, ill-will, ill-thinking, fear and worry. That itself is a great contribution towards peace in oneself and peace in the world.

Look after one's mind before it's too late where one might be completely losing the reasoning power that allow yoga practice to be taking place, even if one is interested in yoga, or strongly believe in 'God' or 'Guru'. One might be doing some form of 'yoga practice' or 'rituals' regularly, but couldn't help being busy looking at other people and shouting at other people, "You people should be like this and shouldn't be like that," expecting everyone and everything 'to be the way that I think it should be'. That's everyone's freedom of thinking and behavior. It's everyone's freedom whether to look after one's mind, or they prefer to be busy minding about other people's minds, and losing the sanity of their own mind being lost in ignorance.

Be free.

Self-righteousness is not yoga practice

Self-righteousness is part of the egoism acting in conjunction with worldly thinking and belief about what is right and wrong/good and bad, it's not part of the yoga practice. In yoga practice, the mind disciplines itself to be free from the cause of suffering - Ignorance, egoism and impurities, to see the truth as it is, going beyond all kinds of thinking and belief about what is right and wrong/good and bad, being free from egoism of attachment, identification, craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation. This is not the same as egoistic self-righteousness that is based on particular worldly thinking and belief about what is right and wrong/good and bad, to judge, criticize, discipline and punish oneself and/or others, or out of the sense of pride and superiority, one interferes with other minds/people, with intention to influence/control/change/discipline/punish other minds/people that one doesn't like and doesn't agree with.

Under the many different cultures and religions, many people growing up being encouraged to develop self-righteousness to uphold what they believe as right and good. It's regarded as a 'good quality' that someone should possess, to discipline oneself. It's fine if people just stop at 'disciplining' oneself in accordance to one's belief and practice about 'what is right and wrong/good and bad'. But most people don't just stop there, but they also want to self-appoint themselves as 'morality guardian/hero' to 'discipline' others whom they know or don't know, whom are different from them, whom they dislike and disagree with, whom they think and believe are 'wrong' and 'bad' in accordance to their own cultural/religious/social/political/personal thinking and belief or practice.

People are being encouraged to develop a strong self-identity/family identity/national identity/cultural identity/religious identity/political identity/social identity and have strong sense of pride towards their identity of that particular thinking and belief, values and practice, and then based on that particular thinking and belief, values and practice, people judge all and everything, and expect themselves and others in the society or the world to somehow comply to that particular thinking and belief, values and practice to think, to behave and to live life the way that they can agree with/accept.

People also like to talk about personal/family/social/national/global 'development' and 'peace and happiness', but mostly are being influenced by self-righteousness based on their particular cultural/religious/social/political/personal thinking and belief, values and practice about what are 'good/right/positive/progressive development' and 'peace and happiness' to them. It's not so much about universal selfless development, peace and happiness for all kinds of diversity beyond all the different names and forms, unlimited by any particular cultural/religious/social/political/personal point of view, thinking and belief, values and practice.

If someone truly/sincerely wants to have peace in oneself and wish to contribute peace into the world that one is living in, the mind needs to be free from self-righteousness based on a particular values of life existence, way of life and conduct, thinking and belief about what is right and wrong/good and bad.

Though it's not necessary, but most minds/people think and believe that as 'an individual among the specie of human beings', they need to adopt/follow/attach onto a particular values, way of life and conduct, cultural/religious/social/political/personal thinking and belief to nurture/build a personal/worldly identity to be existing as who they are, and to think, to behave and to live life complying to that particular values, way of life and conduct, cultural/religious/social/political/personal thinking and belief.

Most minds/people don't just keep their values of life existence, way of life and conduct, cultural/religious/social/political thinking and belief only to themselves, but they want to interfere with others who are different from them. Out of survival instinct and fear of extinction, people want to empower their 'group' to form a 'strong and powerful group' by converting/recruiting many others to 'join' their group, to adopt and support their vision. People also have the tendency of self-righteousness to control/change/condemn/punish others for being different from themselves, which they dislike and disagree with, where they feel that their values, belief and practice are being threatened/intimidated by the other values, beliefs and practices.

• The idea of 'I'.
• Attachment and identification towards certain qualities of names and forms to 'support' the existence of a self-identity of 'I'.
• Possessiveness and pride towards the self-identity and the possessions of 'my life', 'my body', 'my mind', 'my thinking and belief', 'my culture', 'my religion', 'my God', 'my wealth and health', 'my success and happiness', 'my accreditation and reputation', 'my virtues and merits', 'my home', 'my family', 'my parents', 'my partner', 'my relationship', 'my children', 'my friends and relatives', 'my country', 'my world', 'my practice', 'my contribution', 'my teacher', 'my students', and so on.
• Desire of craving and aversion of "I want 'I' and all that is 'mine' to be like this, and I don't want 'I' and all that is 'mine' to be like that."
• Fear of losing the identity of 'I' and all that is 'mine' the way that 'I' like it to be.
• Defensiveness/protectiveness towards the identity of 'I' and all that is 'mine'.

"This is my home/my country/my world. I want my home/my country/my world to be like this and not like that. I don't like and don't agree with all the others who are different from me, who's vision is contradicting to my vision of the perfect home/country/world that I want to have. I want everyone to comply to my values of life existence, way of life and conduct, thinking and belief. If they don't, I won't be able to have my home/my country/my world exactly the way that I want it to be. And I don't want that. I don't want these people being here 'polluting' my beloved home/my good country/my beautiful world."

Most minds are outgoing and desire to be engaging in community or worldly affair with very strong self-righteousness towards how the community or the world should be like, where they feel proud towards their thinking and belief and towards their identification with that thinking and belief as who they are, that they believe that they are being 'assigned' with the responsibility to 'save' the world (their world the way that they prefer) by 'disciplining' or 'teaching' others about what is right and wrong/good and bad based on their particular thinking and belief, to eliminate what they think and believe as 'wrong' and 'bad' from the society or the world.

Yoga practice is turning the mind inward, focusing on eliminating ignorance and egoism in this mind, to go beyond all the 'right and wrong'/'good and bad'/'positive and negative', to free this mind from being limited by any particular thinking and belief, values and practice (including the teachings of yoga) to judge all and everything including this body and this mind, or expecting oneself and/or others and the world to be in certain ways that the egoistic mind likes/agrees with/desires based on those thinking and belief, values and practice. It's not about enhancing health and fitness, to look good and feel good, or to create a 'good' world with everyone behaving in the way that we think how it should be. Though there's nothing wrong with that aspiration, but all these qualities of names and forms are impermanent, and it's not the goal of yoga practice.

The freedom of being free from being limited or determined by any particular thinking and belief or identification with qualities of names and forms is unthinkable/unperceivable for the minds that attached strongly onto their existing thinking and belief to be identifying as who they are.

It's everyone's freedom for what they want to do with their life, body and mind, and whether to practice yoga, or not. If people want to judge, control, change or convert others out of self-righteousness, that's their freedom. That's how the world is and will be.

Be free.

Morality and self control

Due to the different cultures and beliefs of the different people in different areas in the world, we all might have different standard of the meaning of ‘morality’. But self control is the main subject here. Because at the end it doesn’t matter what type of morality that we are practicing, it is the self control that matter most. Without self control, there is no morality at all.

Here, we are talking about the right conduct that is given in the teachings of Yoga and Buddhism. They both are similar teaching. Although one talks about 'God', and the other doesn’t. But when we understood that the nature of everything is the same and no difference at all between existence and non-existence, life and death, happiness and suffering, we will understand that it is doesn’t matter if people think and believe that there is a 'God' or there is no 'God'.

To those who believe in 'God' existence, 'God' is infinite and indescribable. We all are depending on a source of nature that provide energy and different elements for all and everything to be existing in this world. All lives are depending solely on the energy and elements that which are not in our own control. We are all the same when we have pain, sorrow, hurt, disappointment, anger, jealousy, greed, wickedness, selfishness, aggressiveness, fear, worry, passion, lust, ignorance, arrogance, happiness, joy, love, compassion, good will and evil will, and all types of feelings and emotions, whether there is 'God' or no 'God', whether we believe in 'God' or don’t believe in 'God'.

We should respect everyone’s belief and disbelief, and no need to argue or debate about 'God' and no 'God', 'your God', 'his God' or 'my God'. If there is a 'God', it does not belong to anybody or be restricted to any name and form that we human beings project onto it. It doesn’t belong to any church, or temple, or any name and form that we give to the places or buildings that people go for prayers, rituals and contemplation.

'God' is what it is. It is not mine, not yours, not theirs. It can be everyone’s guardian, parent, friend, lover, companion, healer, teacher, or anything agreeable and disagreeable that we would like it to be. Everyone deserves 'God'. It doesn’t matter when we think ourselves or others are good or not good. Because if it's really 'God', it is all pervading and inclusive, all love and compassionate, all powerful and unconditional, unlimited and infinite.

If we want to attain or realize 'God', we need to purify our impurities and remove the differentiation or separateness deriving from the perception of duality. We need to know what is selflessness, non-separateness, intentionless, non-duality, without qualities, namelessness and formlessness. If we don’t understand what all these terms are, then we are building up an invisible wall between 'God' and us, which prevents us to realize 'God', or to know what is 'God'. When we are being disturbed, hurt, disappointed and angered by something, we thought that 'God' didn’t or doesn't love us. We would question 'God' about why did it allow so much painful sufferings and unfair happenings in the world. 'God' is always here within and without all and everything regardless of whether sometimes we are good and happy, and sometimes we are not so good and unhappy. Even when we are still full of impurities and ignorance, when we are being imperfect, whether our body is clean or dirty, whether we are sleeping or awake, 'God' has never left us, it is always with us, guiding us and shows us the way to see 'God' or realize 'God' in us, beyond names and forms, not being perceived through these fleshy eyes. Because 'God' is selfless, nameless and formless without attributes. We can’t perceive 'God' through the fleshy eyes and the intellectual thinking mind. Whether we believe there’s a 'God', or not, it is always there unmoved or unaffected by our little impure ignorant mind existing and functioning under impermanent qualities, names and forms. It doesn’t matter what languages that we know and speak, what cultures that we have, what religions that we are talking about, 'God' is still the same 'God', at anytime and anywhere.

When we know what is 'God', or what is selflessness, or the nature of names and forms, or the truth of existence, there's only unlimited love, peace, joy, compassion, and wisdom in us. There is no word that can express that in definite, except being silent. We would repent all our past wrong doings, but at the same time also forgiving ourselves for being imperfect and letting the past go and move on. We would not ask anything from 'God' if we truly know what is 'God' that exists in all and everything. It's the one same nature of all and everything. We would see 'God' in everything and in everyone. We would be content. It is only when we don’t know what is 'God', and would feel separation from 'God', then we will pray to 'God' and ask for 'God's blessings or forgiveness.

'God' doesn’t live in a restricted building or only be existing at some specific places in the world. It is everywhere and anywhere at all time, from ancient to the future, from before the beginning of existence to the period of existence and to destruction and after destruction. It is within us and without us. It is all pervading, all presence, and all knowledge. It is NOW, and there's only NOW. It is what selflessness and impermanence is about. It is how everything arising, changing, and passing away, governed by the nature law of cause and effect.

How can 'God' be limited or restricted by us, human beings, into certain quality, name and form? How can 'God' be limited in some impermanent buildings so called church, or temple, or mosque, comparing to this vast space of unlimited endless universe?

If we believe there is a 'God', and we believe in 'God' and love 'God', how can we own 'God' selfishly and limit 'God' of its love, power, knowledge, presence and infinity? How can we use 'God's name to hurt, condemn, punish, and torture other human beings or live forms, and cause injury, fear and painful sorrow to others, physically and mentally? Or, taking away innocent lives through wars, violence, and killings under humans generated possessiveness/differences/separateness/discrimination of boundary, caste, creed, status, and different names of religion?

Some people need a 'God' to be their guide in life, or else they will be lost in this ocean of ignorance, miseries, and distractions.

Some people might have created their own belief to be their guide to suit their own temperament and convenience, and some people might have realized the nature of everything, or the Dhamma, or the selfless Self/the universal consciousness, to be the refuge, and be resting in unconditional peace.

Are we all not the same when death comes to us? Are we all not the same when we are angry and have hatred, fear, jealousy, and greed? Are we all not the same when we cry or laugh? Are we all not the same when we want to love someone and want to be loved?

Are we all not breathing the same air from the same space in the same universe?

Are we all not being alive by eating the food and drinking the water coming from the same earth with the same sun shining on us?

Does the sun only shines on certain people under specific religion, and not to the others?

Is the air that we breathe in only accessible for ‘good’ people and not for ‘bad’ people?

Does the earth only let certain human beings to step on it, to live on it and to put so much shit and rubbish on it, and not to other human beings who have different beliefs and religions, or have no any particular religion belief?

When we lost someone that we loved so much, isn’t it the same painful sorrow for everyone under different religions, skin colours, castes, languages, genders, beliefs, cultures, nationalities, achievements, and levels of education and knowledge?

When we suffer headache, toothache, injuries, or sickness, are we all not the same having painful sensations and have fear towards death and the unknown?

Every religion or spiritual teachings or philosophy talks about morality, or self control, more precisely. Morality under certain religious teachings or cultural beliefs is something leaning towards self-righteousness, which is not part of the teachings and practice of yoga or buddhism.

If we have established a firm self control over our own thoughts, speech and actions, we all are the same regardless of what we believe or disbelieve.

We will check all our outgoing thoughts, before we generate any physical speech and action. So that we will not harm or hurt anyone physically and/or mentally, and will not create painful sorrow for other people, intentionally or unintentionally.

There's nothing wrong when some people are indulging in passion and lust, or indulging in alcohol and drugs. It is their own freedom and choice, to live the type of life that they want, and to do whatever they like to do with their life existence, or being the slave of pleasurable enjoyment of the senses. They are taking responsibility of the consequences from their lifestyle and doings, they are responsible for themselves and their well being, and if they have self control, they do not hurt others physically or emotionally at all, intentionally or unintentionally.

There are people who steal, rob, rape, assault, kill, cheat and lie to the people that they don’t know.

There are people who made their family and friends or their loved ones as the victim of their lust, greed and lies.

And there are so many stories of painful sorrow in broken relationships and broken families due to disloyalty and unfaithfulness derived from uncontrolled passionate lust and greedy desire. There are so many victims of rape, assault, accidents, and diseases derived from irresponsible sexual activities, alcohol and drugs abuse. There are also too many unnecessary suffering and destruction in the world deriving from selfish egoistic corrupted politicians or world leaders or governments.

We should think carefully where do all these unhappiness, painful sorrow, and suffering come from?

Usually when a person smokes cigarette, it will cause another person suffers from lungs cancer through breathing in the second hand smoke. Can we say that it has got nothing to do with the person who smokes and this person doesn’t have to take any responsibility for the suffering of the person who got sick due to his action?

We all contribute so much pain and suffering unto other people regardless of whether we are aware of it, or not, and most of the time we are ignorant of it.

We won’t feel or understand the pain of others until we ourselves suffer the similar type of pain.

But why do we let ourselves hurting ourselves and some others, ruin the well-being of our body and take away the clarity of our mind by being the slave of lust, greed, anger, violence, and untruthfulness, and abusing our body and mind with alcohol and drugs whether it's for pleasurable enjoyment, or for momentary relief from tension of unhappiness? This is not just harming our own self, but also we might hurt someone else and causing painful sorrow to somebody and their loved ones under the influence of intoxicants and impurities/disturbed state of mind.

When come to Yoga practitioner or Yoga teacher, what is the meaning of our practice if we do not have self control, being over-powered by passion, lust, anger, pride, jealousy, and greedy desire, not being truthful and honest, indulging in random uncommitted sexual activities with multiple partners without love and responsibility, or indulging in alcohol and drugs abuse?

Some Yoga teachers are having love/sexual affair with their students while propagating that it's unconditional love without attachment, or non-possessiveness in intimate love affair. The teacher is full of passion and lust, as well as the students are full of passion and lust, from sharing to caring to touching to caressing, from the floor of the Yoga studio ending up on the bed of the teacher or the students.

Maybe this is neither right nor wrong, but it is not Yoga class, but passionate lust, sexuality and intercourse class. There’s nothing wrong in the enthusiasm to learn about all these human's activity. But definitely this has got nothing to do with purity, non-attachment, non-possessiveness, dispassion, renunciation, self control, and self realization. It is just not Yoga class or yoga practice.

There is nothing wrong if both parties are single, or already divorced without any existing commitment or relationship with another person, and they both like each other and want to be with each other, and maybe committing to share their life together, learning from each other, growing together, building a happy family and live the same way of life. That’s very good.

But if the teacher or the students are already committed to somebody, then this love affair or lustful action will hurt their spouse or partner physically, mentally, or emotionally.

What worst is that if the teacher is sleeping with one student on one day, and another day is sleeping with another student. It doesn’t matter if they all know about it and agree with the circumstances of their action or activities, and no one is getting hurt.

They justify that this is "love to all without attachment, without possessiveness".
What love to all? Only lustful sexual enjoyment is the intention behind this action. While non-attachment and non-possessiveness is not about engaging in multiple intimate relationship without commitment or responsibility.

Sexuality is nothing wrong. Passion is nothing wrong too. We all are human beings born with this instinct of passion and sexuality. But the only difference between a Yoga practitioner and a non-Yoga practitioner is, having self control or without self control, and having correct understanding or without correct understanding.

What is Yoga practice then? Sexual activities? Sensual enjoyments? Passion and lust is our 'God' and religion/spirituality?

What worst of the worst is that when the student is sleeping with the teacher’s spouse or lover, and the teacher is allowing as well as encouraging it, so that the teacher can also be free to sleep with anyone else, including his or her students.

This is very confusing for the people who come to them trying to learn Yoga. If these people have not yet established in some basic correct understanding, they will think that this is Yoga – random sexual relationship/non-committed multiple love affairs. This is really creating a big misconception about Yoga into the people’s mind. If random uncommitted sexual relationships or multiple intimate love affairs can lead us towards self-realization or liberation from ignorance and suffering, Buddha and all our yoga Gurus wouldn't be so strongly emphasized about the practice of Brahmacharya.

As Yoga teachers who teach and guide others about the teachings and practice of yoga, shouldn’t we show some respect to our Gurus’ teaching? Shouldn’t we be a role model to be uplifting the observation of self control, right understanding, and right conduct in those who come to us for learning Yoga sincerely? Shouldn’t we have strong establishment in our own practice and have great respect for self-control and dispassion?
 

The teaching and practice of yoga and buddhism is about non-discriminative one humanity for all, which is about purity, non-duality, compassion, and wisdom, we all are the same and no differences. Neither good nor bad and neither right nor wrong, or non-duality doesn't mean that we can kill somebody recklessly/deliberately, or indulging in irresponsible lustful desires or alcohol/drug abuse, and hurt some others physically/mentally selfishly or randomly. It is about going beyond the duality of good and bad, and transcending happiness and suffering. It is not committing in any hurtful/evil actions and not longing for accumulating merits and virtues or good karma from doing good actions.

It doesn’t matter if some people say that they don’t have any religion or don’t believe in spirituality at all, but maybe they are more spiritual than many people who call themselves religious/spiritual human beings that belonged to a particular religion/spirituality. Not having a particular religion or not believing in spirituality doesn’t mean that a person is evil, wrongful, ignorant, non-compassionate, or immoral.

Just because it is being referred as ‘religion’ and ’spirituality’ or non-religion and non-spirituality, it should not be limited by the name and form to justify whether someone is religious or spiritual, or not. It (the truth of selflessness and impermanence) is something within all and everything regardless of whether we are aware of it, or not, recognize it, or not, calling it a religion and spirituality, or non-religion and non-spirituality, or not.

It is the unconditional non-discriminative loving kindness, peace, compassion, and wisdom that everyone has, but might not be aware of it due to the presence of ignorance and egoism, impurities and restlessness in the modification of the mind.

We should respect that everyone is free to do what they want to do and think what they like to think, even if they are intentionally or unintentionally harming themselves and/or others, but everyone is responsible for their own every single action.

Everyone is free to do what they like and be responsible for themselves, however, we need to be aware so that our actions will not hurt others physically or mentally and create painful sorrow for others, it doesn’t matter if they are our loved ones or people that we don’t know, if we are sincere in walking the path of Yoga and/or Buddhism, to be free from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

May we all develop correct understanding and disseminate wisdom, kindness, peace, and happiness in this world.

 

Controlling, regulating, judging, punishing, disciplining, and hurting others out of self-righteousness, anger, disagreement, dissatisfaction, disappointment, pride, superiority, authority, and under the name of upholding 'morality' or 'self control', is not morality at all, and it's definitely nothing to do with self control. It's mere ignorance, violence, the urge to control others, and the lack of self control in oneself.

 

Inquire the truth of everything.