The practice of non-attachment and independence

There is nothing wrong to enjoy and appreciate the presence of agreeable companionship, support and interaction from some other beings, however, the mind that is endowed with non-attachment and independence, can also enjoy and appreciate aloneness or solitude under the absence of agreeable companionship, support or interaction from some other beings, where the mind has no problem, or unhappiness, or suffering, upon the absence of agreeable companionship, support and interaction from some others.

One's peace and happiness doesn't come from the presence of agreeable companionship, support and interaction from some other beings.

One is peaceful and happy as one is, regardless of whether with or without the company, support and interaction from some other beings.

That is indeed the basic foundation of the yoga practice.

All kinds of enhanced physical health, fitness, ability, skill, stamina, strength and flexibility through performing some kinds of yoga practice regularly don't determine that the mind is practicing yoga, or realizes yoga, if without the basic essential non-attachment and independence.

Inquire towards common human's behavior pattern that generates unnecessary disturbance unto oneself and others

"I am talking to you. Why are you not responding? Why don't you say something or ask other people how are they? This is so wrong and disrespectful. It's very unhealthy if you don't go out to meet people and interact with people. Normal people would care for one another by talking to each other, and have healthy communication and interaction with other human beings. You need to learn how to behave properly. You need to response to people who are talking to you, to have a healthy communication and interaction with one another."

This is a very common trait in many people of different diversities in the world of ignorance and egoism.

That is what egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, comparison, judgment and expectation is about.

Yoga practice is about freeing the mind from being conditioned by such passionate egoistic mind behavior pattern under the influence of certain passionate egoistic thinking, belief, values and practice.

There is nothing wrong with certain worldly minded passionate people who love and enjoy entertaining one another, by having social communication and interaction all the time, or else they will feel bored, unloved, lonely, left out and meaningless. Not only that they have expectation towards all and everyone should have 'normal' behavior of having communication and interaction with one another, but they also expect other people to be communicating and interacting with one another in certain way that they think and believe as 'good', 'right', 'positive', 'appropriateness', or 'meaningfulness', while causing unnecessary disturbance in themselves and others upon others are not thinking, behaving, acting and reacting in the same way like themselves. This mind behavior pattern can be reflected in many other kinds of human's behavior under the influence of ignorance and egoism.

There is also nothing wrong with certain people who do not want to entertain certain people or anyone, or do not want to pay attention and waste energy onto certain things that don't interest them.

Being kind and compassionate towards others selflessly and desirelessly, doesn't have to be under the presence of certain social communication or interaction that is limited by language or literacy. One doesn't need to know or speak the same language to understand what the person is saying or experiencing, to be aware of and understand that this person is in some kind of painful suffering, to be kind and compassionate towards all and everyone who are struggling and drowning in some kind of painful suffering, under the influence of ignorance, egoism, impurities and restlessness. One doesn't need to know how to read and write in certain language in order to have correct understanding and self-control of not generating any hurtful damaging behaviors, actions and reactions unto oneself and others and the surrounding environment, to be friendly towards all and everyone, to be free from selfishness, greed, discrimination, separateness, possessiveness, unhappiness, loneliness, meaninglessness, worry, fear, jealousy, pride, arrogance, guilt, regret, offensiveness, defensiveness, anger and hatred, and so on.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Attachment and mental health

There's neither good nor bad about the presence and absence of worldly connection building and social interaction. The difference is about the presence or absence of attachment towards agreeable and disagreeable social connections and interactions, that is determining whether the mind (the state of the mind/mental health) is being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions, or not.

It's normal that the passionate egoistic minds that think and believe they love yoga very much and are practicing yoga regularly, might not like or agree with the teaching and practice of yoga and buddhism about non-attachment, or renunciation and dispassion. These minds, including many mental health professionals, think and believe that all minds can't live without social connections and interactions, where social connections and interactions are highly important for mental health, where lack of social connections and interactions is highly detrimental towards mental health, not knowing that, the main culprit is ATTACHMENT, and it's not really about whether there's sufficient social connections and interactions, or not.

Void of attachment, the presence and absence of all kinds of agreeable and disagreeable worldly connections and interactions don't determine the state of the mind, or mental health.

The presence of attachment towards the presence and absence of agreeable and disagreeable worldly connections and interactions is the reason why suffering/painful sorrow/disturb arise in the mind, upon the absence of, or the lack of, or losing the pleasant and agreeable connections and interactions, as well as upon coming in contact with, or the presence of unpleasant and disagreeable connections and interactions.

The minds that don't know what is non-attachment, or don't know how to remain unattached towards all kinds of connections and interactions, they would be spontaneously or autonomously attracted to, or admiring, or 'falling in love with' something or someone that appeared to be pleasant, agreeable, lovable, beautiful or meaningful to the mind, and being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of all kind of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions. These minds also have the desire to become physically and mentally attractive and admirable to other minds in the process of connections building and interactions, being determined by the presence and accumulation of pleasant and agreeable social connections and interactions for developing and empowering the sense of self-esteem, confidence, goodness, happiness, positiveness and meaningfulness towards itself and life existence, which determining, affecting and influencing the state of their mental health.

Even when the mind feels confident, good, happy, positive and meaningful about itself and life existence upon the presence of pleasant and agreeable connections and interactions in the present moment, this is impermanent. The mind will be in suffering, or the state of mental health will be 'bad' or 'disturbed', upon inevitable impermanent changes, upon the presence of unpleasant and disagreeable connections and interactions, and upon the absence of pleasant and agreeable connections and interactions, due to attachment. That is not freedom at all.

The minds that know what is non-attachment, where they can stay unattached towards all kinds of worldly connections and interactions, they can mix and mingle freely among the worldly community, if they want, but without being determined or influenced by the presence and absence of all kinds of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions. Such minds don't admire, or attracted to, or 'fall in love with' anything or anyone that appeared to be pleasant, agreeable, lovable, beautiful or meaningful to the mind, of what the mind perceived as 'goodness', 'kindness', 'righteousness', 'meaningfulness', 'positiveness', 'beautiful', 'cuteness', or 'attractiveness'. These minds don't need to rely on the presence and accumulation of agreeable social connections and interactions to be developing and empowering the sense of self-esteem, confidence, goodness, happiness, positiveness and meaningfulness towards itself and life existence, that don't need to be there at all. That's freedom.

Regardless of whether the minds like or dislike, agree or disagree, practice or don't practice, non-attachment is the core teaching and practice of yoga and buddhism. Without non-attachment, all kind of practice won't lead the mind towards liberation from ignorance and egoism, and the consequences of that. One can be practicing and/or teaching yoga to many other people for many years, preaching about awareness and mindfulness, while adopting a way of healthy living, clean eating and high thinking, but the mind might still be not free from functioning under the influence of ignorance and passionate egoism, being determined and influenced very much by the mind perception of a selfless impermanent worldly life existence of impermanent names and forms, worldly identities, activities, affairs, conditions, connections and interactions.

It's neither right nor wrong about the agreement and disagreement of the minds towards the teaching and practice of non-attachment. It's whether the minds are being endowed with the intense yearning for liberation, or not. The minds that are only interested in gaining some momentary physical and mental health and fitness benefits from performing the different type of yoga practice and exercises regularly, and developing the sense of goodness, happiness, positiveness and meaningfulness via the gratification of the desire of craving and aversion, through the presence and enjoyment of pleasant and agreeable names and forms, conditions, activities, connections and interactions, they don't need to agree with or practice non-attachment, as they wish. While the minds that have intense yearning towards liberation from the inevitable suffering of restlessness, of swaying between happiness and unhappiness, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, then non-attachment is the path.

The passionate minds advise the minds that suffered from low self-esteem, low confidence, dissatisfaction, unhappiness and meaninglessness to enlarge the circle of their social connections and interactions, empowering mental and emotional dependence, that give rise to momentary sense of accomplishment, acknowledgement, satisfaction, happiness and meaningfulness to the mind, while the teachings of yoga and buddhism advise such minds to renounce from the worldly connections and interactions for developing non-attachment and dispassion, developing mental and emotional independence, to free the mind from the root cause of low self-esteem, low confidence, dissatisfaction, unhappiness and meaninglessness, which is ignorance and passionate egoism.

Not that the mind will be free from suffering, or will be in a state of constant happiness or satisfaction upon the absence or cessation of selfless impermanent changes, but it is no longer being determined or influenced by the selfless impermanent changes within the impermanent modification of the selfless mind (the different states of the mind) and all kind of names and forms that it perceives through the senses, including this selfless physical body (the different conditions of the physical body).

A truly compassionate and wise teacher/parent/leader/senior/friend will allow the student/child/follower/junior/friend to become independent mentally and emotionally, where one knows how to love oneself, think for oneself, inquire the truth by oneself and look after oneself, and doesn't need to rely on connections and interactions with some others to be receiving love and support, agreement and acknowledgement, to feel good, happy, confident, positive or meaningful, regardless of the presence and absence of agreeable and disagreeable connections and interactions.

The mind that knows this, doesn't suffer from the sense of loneliness, even without any connections and interactions with anyone. The mind that doesn't know this, will be suffering from the sense of loneliness even when there is the presence of different kind of connections and interactions with some others, as it is always looking forward to be receiving ongoing attention, love, support, agreement and acknowledgement from some others. People might think that it's due to the lack of physical and mental companionship and interaction that is why someone is suffering from loneliness, not knowing that, it's the presence of attachment and craving towards receiving attention, love, support, agreement and acknowledgement from some others in order to feel love, good, happy, confident, positive and meaningful.

Social distancing?

Scientists have already found out that the spread of the virus among human beings is mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales, (which obviously including talking,) where people can be infected by breathing in the virus if they are within close proximity of someone who has the virus, or by touching a contaminated surface and then their eyes, nose or mouth. 

If people have high awareness and self-control, and know how to maintain certain length of physical distance from other people, even if they are family and friends but who are not from the same household, on top of wearing face mask properly, frequent hand-washing and without touching their eyes, nose and mouth unwittingly, then it would effectively help to minimize the spread of the virus among human beings. But, very few people in the world will have such high awareness and self-control, and constantly observing such practices wittingly. And hence, the pandemic is still growing and worsening in many countries in the world.

Many people, including some yoga practitioners and teachers might understand the importance of it, but they couldn’t observe the practice of social distancing during the pandemic, which is the most important way to stop the spread of the virus from human to human.

Not limited to, but there are some reasons why people can’t practice social distancing or reluctant to be refraining from any kinds of physical social meet up, gathering, mingling and interaction for a prolonged period of time such as:-

1.) The sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom, as well as anxiety building up towards the pandemic and the long term side-effects of it, whether wittingly or unwittingly, which is natural for most people. 

People who have not enough understanding towards the function and state of the mind would be over-whelmed by the sense of loneliness, meaninglessness and boredom and/or anxiety, and losing their patience, balance and sanity, and behave irrationally after a prolonged period of time being restricted from many familiar physical and social activity and interaction. There's nothing wrong with human beings are sociable, interactive and talkative in nature. Those who have developed certain degrees of self-control and mind discipline, and have adequate understanding towards the function and state of the mind, would have no problem being without any physical and social activity and interaction with other human beings for a prolonged period of time.

2.) People think that social distancing means only limited to maintaining certain length of physical distance from other people, but doesn't need to restrict or limit physical and verbal activity and communication, especially verbal interaction and talking face to face with other people, even if people are wearing a face mask, as most people couldn't help touching their face mask from time to time with their fingers and then touching everywhere, unwittingly.

3.) Many people just can’t live without physically engaging in social/cultural/religious practices, celebrations, ceremonies and events in a group that involves more than one participant. People like to share and be merry or be in grief with other people. There's nothing wrong with that, especially if in a world without the pandemic. People have the freedom for how they want to live their life, with or without the pandemic going on. Although there are new laws being implemented to limit people's action and inaction for the sake of curbing the pandemic.

People can’t live without physically meeting, mingling, interacting, communicating and talking face to face with some other human beings from time to time, especially with their family and friends who live physically apart from one another. People can’t live without hugging and touching or ‘kiss kiss’, especially with their family and friends, to show love and affection. Even some yoga enthusiasts and mental health professionals would actually believe that people will be sick and die if without physical hugging and touching with other human beings for a long time. People can’t just be by themselves or with those within the same household after a certain period of time, but they need to go out and physically mingling with their neighbours, relatives and friends, and family members who are not already living under the same household. There's nothing wrong with all these behaviors. It's very common for most people.

Social distancing isn’t just about maintaining at least two metres distance of physical distancing, on top of frequent hand-washing and wearing face mask like what most people would prefer it to be as simplest as that, because people need to go out to work to maintain livelihood and get daily needs even without engaging in any physical social activity or gathering, but it’s the restriction towards all kinds of physical social/cultural/religious activity, gathering, meet up, interaction, communication, celebration, ceremony and event that gather two or more people to be in a particular space, which cannot avoid some kind of verbal interaction or talking among people, that serves an upmost important role to minimize the spread of the highly contagious virus. Because most people just forget about maintaining physical distance and can't avoid verbal/physical communication/interaction when there are two people or more being together in the same space.

There’s nothing wrong with people being sociable and talkative and carrying out their all-time social/cultural/religious practices even in the midst of pandemic. Life has to go on. For the sake of maintaining certain degrees of sanity, many people need to live life with all kinds of social/cultural/religious activities the way that they are familiar with. Just that this pandemic won’t end anytime soon, but will keep growing under the people's ongoing physical social meet up, gathering, mingling, interaction and talking face to face, even if wearing a face mask during such activities.

Those who don't take any consideration towards the scientific research being accurate, or not, but just blindly deny any scientific research, and those who think that the pandemic doesn't exist, won't help in tackling the pandemic either.

Not just that people's physical and mental health is being threatened by the prolonged pandemic, but people’s lives, movements and livelihoods that depend on the global economy will continue to be restricted and affected, unless the respective vaccine is found and accessible/affordable to everyone.

Social conversation / talking / sharing / caring?

Most people need/like/love to talk to some other people most of the time, or even talking to themselves if other people are not available. Talking is a normal thing to do, and a common way to know, learn, express and share, or to have an activity to pass time to chase away boredom and to gratify curiosity. 

 

In many cultures in the society, it's considered 'rude', or 'impolite', or 'inappropriate', or 'wrong', or 'something is wrong', if there's silence among people (especially for a prolonged period of time), or if someone doesn't interact with other people or doesn't get involved in a conversation with other people around, especially those who know one another, even if someone who can't hear or speak, or don't speak the same language, or those who are new comers/complete strangers showing up in a place with some other people around, are also being 'expected' to show at least some sort of acknowledgement through body language/facial expression/sign language/gesture to be conversing/interacting/communicating with other people.

 

People would feel offended, or disrespected, or mistreated, if they don't get any 'expected' response from those whom they want to talk to, where either people didn't give any response, or people talked about something that they aren't interested or don't like to hear, especially something that they perceive and judge as 'offensiveness' that they disagree with.

Many people aren't satisfied with some people just giving a friendly non-intimidating smile to acknowledge or greet other people, but they believe and expect that all human beings need to have certain physical/mental/emotional conversation/communication/interaction/involvement/connection with each other to build a 'healthy' and 'caring' society.

 

Someone who keeps to oneself, who has no unfriendly discrimination or intimidation towards everyone else, but doesn't interested in engaging in any kind of physical/mental/emotional contact/conversation/interaction/communication/involvement/connection with anyone, is being seen as 'wrong', 'selfish', 'unhealthy', or 'sicked', by all the others who 'expect' certain 'normal' and 'healthy' behavior/action/reaction/interaction among 'normal' and 'healthy' human beings.

Many passionate/sociable/friendly/caring people couldn't understand or respect that there are people who prefer complete quietness/solitude or some quiet/alone time and space for themselves. People would either feel 'bad' or get 'offended' when other people reject or don't accept their friendly invitation to meet up, or get together, or to chat.

People need/want to share 'what I think is who I am' and 'how I think and feel' with other people and they want other people to share with them 'what they think is who they are' and 'how they think and feel'.

 

Majority of the worldly so called 'normal', 'healthy', 'friendly' and 'caring' society is all about developing and empowering that egoistic 'self-identity' which attached and identified with certain qualities of names and forms and 'the modification of the mind of impermanent thinking, emotions and feelings' as 'this is I' and that is not 'I', even in the yoga community that is supposed to be free from all kinds of egoistic attachment and identification, to realize selflessness/namelessness/formlessness/attributelessness.

For those who know each other, mostly the conversation begins with "How are you?" and then naturally will be followed by talking about the past and the future, "What have you been doing and where did you go and what's next?"

 

While for those first time meeting/knowing each other, it's mostly talking about self-introduction of each other about "Who I am/who you are." or "This is me and my name/my nationality/my life/my family/my relationship/my friends/my experience/my knowledge/my interest/my ambition/my passion/my vision/my point of view/my ideas/my talent/my skill/my achievement/my non-achievement/my success/my failure/my pride/my shame/my good/my bad/my happiness/my unhappiness/my guilt and regret, and so on. This is who I am, where I come from/where I live and what I do for living and at free time, and what I think/believe/feel/like/dislike/agree with/disagree with/want/don't want, my good/bad/happy/unhappy experiences, and what I did in the past and will be doing in the future." As well as talking about "This is good/better/right/positive/excellent/happy/funny/meaningful/encouraging and that is bad/worse/wrong/negative/terrible/unhappy/sad/meaningless/discouraging." or some 'obligated social ethical manner' of pleasant words, praise and compliment. And sometimes there will be scheming, plotting, cover-up/made-up stories telling, or hypocrisy, or lies, or gossip, or mocking, or teasing, or flirting, or criticism, or condemn, or slander, or back-biting, or finger pointing, or argument, or intimidation, and etc.

Social conversation or talking is an intense physical/mental/emotional energy consuming process that keeps the mind ceaselessly stimulated and restlessly receiving/processing inputs and generating/delivering outputs, while all these ceaseless mind inputs and outputs generate further random mental/emotional imprints that doesn't allow the mind to be quiet, and unwittingly empowering egoism of worldly/spiritual attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation that feeds ignorance and egoism in oneself and others.

For those who sincerely want to meditate or practice yoga to be free from ignorance, it's all about freeing the mind from being unwittingly empowering all those names and forms, of duality, attachment, identification, past experiences, future anticipation, passionate desires, craving/aversion, judgment, comparison, expectation, restlessness, impurities, and etc, to stop feeding egoism and ignorance. And hence, the important practice of silence, renunciation, seclusion and solitude.

Without renunciation from the worldly society, one is being 'obliged' to meet up/get together/communicate/interact with many other people of family/relatives/friends circle/community and spend so much energy into social conversation/interaction/communication/activity with all the others around in order to 'build' and 'maintain' a 'healthy, caring and friendly society' that might make the mind feels 'love', 'kindness', 'acknowledgement', 'goodness', 'positiveness', 'liveliness' and 'meaningfulness'. 

 

There's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't help to free the mind from ignorance and egoism, to quiet/annihilate the restless modification of the mind. Instead, the mind might attached stronger onto the sense of 'love', 'kindness', 'acknowledgement', 'goodness', 'positiveness', 'liveliness' and 'meaningfulness' deriving from the impermanent and selfless worldly names and forms of all kinds of attachment and egoistic identity, actions and the fruit of actions.

From the perception/achievement/notion of "Life in this world is good and meaningful," give rise to the desire of "We need to preserve and protect life in this world to stay good and meaningful." And from there, it gives rise to the sense of 'dissatisfaction', 'frustration', 'hurts', 'depression', 'unhappiness', 'anger', 'disappointment', 'fear', 'worry', and etc, when things are not being the way that the mind desires it to be, when there are obstacles/difficulties/circumstances that hinder the gratification of that desire to be building/maintaining/protecting what the mind think and believe as 'Good and meaningful life in this world'. This is attachment/clinging/craving/expectation.

First, there's an idea/thought arise in the mind, then arise the attachment/clinging onto that idea/thought which gives rise to the desire to materialize that idea/thought to become action/creation, and then there's possessiveness/identification/expectation/protection towards that action/creation and the result/fruit of that action/creation. If things turn out to be the way that is not what the mind desire/expect it to be, the mind feels disturbed/dissatisfied/disappointed/hurt/sad/unhappy/depressed/frustrated/angry/aggressive/violent and so on. And ceaseless random ideas/thoughts arise to counter those 'tension' accumulating in the mind. Restless.

Those who have firm foundation in non-attachment and dispassion, or those who know thyself or selflessness, or maybe those who think and believe "I have done and achieved everything that I desire and I can die in peace at any time from now without regret," can mix into the worldly society and perform many actions to help to build a 'caring and friendly society' in the world, but without being distracted or influenced by the constant restless physical/mental/emotional interaction/activity, being undetermined by the actions and the fruit of actions, being free from disturbs, hurts, disappointment, dissatisfaction, frustration, or guilt/regret. This is non-attachment/non-clinging/non-craving/non-expectation.

One can mix with many people and constantly talk about "This is my name, my nationality, my family, my friends, my relatives, my community, my past, my present, my future, my actions and fruit of my actions, my thinking/belief/culture/point of view/feelings/emotions/experiences, or this and that is happening/has happened/will be happening here and there, and so on." as all these names and forms are what most people talk about in any conversation and where people identifying with all these names and forms as "who they think they are", but knowing clearly that all these names and forms are not "who I am" or 'I' for the minds that know thyself or selflessness.

When someone is being alone or in silence at peace being in their own 'space', people around will be concern and ask, "Are you okay? Is there something bothering you? You can talk to me. I'm here to listen."

There's nothing wrong when people feel sad, or unhappy, or depressed, or disappointed, or frustrated, or negative once in a while, and most people feel that they need to talk to someone to share their feelings and what's bothering them, to release some tension or to get some advice. People don't have to be okay, or satisfy, or happy all the time. But those who know what is going on in the mind, they know that all pleasant and unpleasant emotions and feelings are impermanent, and they do not attached or identified with any pleasant or unpleasant emotions and feelings. There is nothing to be sad, unhappy, depressed, disappointed, frustrated or negative about, that need to be talking or sharing with someone else, or to release any tension, as there's no tension built up, or to get any advice, as there's no problems.

Those who know this, they can be peaceful and happy as they are, no matter what.

Those who don't know this, they don't have to be happy all the time and they can't be happy no matter what.

 

It's okay sometimes the mind is not okay and not happy with certain things. There's nothing wrong with that. But when they think no body is being there to share their thinking/feelings/problems, to be talking to other people, or to be listening by other people, they might feel more sad, unhappy, disappointed, depressed, frustrated, or negative. And hence, people believe that "People should be available to be talking to and listening to other people all the time. Most people need to feel better through talking to other people. While those who want to listen and share about other people's feelings and emotions would feel good and meaningful when there are people want to talk to them." There's nothing wrong with that but it doesn't free the mind (of the one who talks and the one who listens) from ignorance/attachment/craving/expectation. Just like giving an unhappy and crying child the sweets and sugary drinks that the child wants every time to make the child stop being unhappy and crying if the child doesn't get the sweets and sugary drinks, doesn't really help the child at all. There's no freedom.

"It feels so good talking to you. Let's meet up regularly and talk more," and "Talking to me can make you feel better and make me feel so good and meaningful. Let's meet up and talk more often." If for some reasons that these two people are not possible to meet up and talk as expected/desired/needed, both would feel bad, sad and disappointed. There's no freedom.

Just like practicing yoga exercises and teaching yoga to other people would generate the momentary sense of well-being, goodness and meaningfulness, and if for some reasons one couldn't practice yoga exercises or teach yoga for a prolonged period of time, one would feel frustrated, disappointed and meaningless. There's no freedom.

Most people/minds don't like to hear this.

"Compassion is not about giving the mind what it likes and wants, or what it craves for, to be empowering the ignorance and egoism in the mind to make the ego feels better, good, satisfied or happy. Compassion is allowing the suffering unhappy disturbed mind to inquire into the truth of suffering, unhappiness and disturbs, by freeing the mind from ignorance, egoism, restlessness and impurities, to see the truth of the root cause of all suffering of disturbs/hurts/unhappiness/disappointment/dissatisfaction/fear/worry, where all kinds of suffering is deriving from one's ignorance and egoism or ceaseless egoistic mind reactions towards the gratification/non-gratification of the desire of craving and aversion. If one's desire is being gratified by getting what one likes and wants, and not getting what one doesn't like and doesn't want, then the mind reacts and feels good, satisfied and happy. And when one's desire is not being gratified, where one is not getting what one likes and wants, but is getting what one doesn't like and doesn't want, then the mind reacts and feels bad, dissatisfied and unhappy. It's nothing to do with the experiences or names and forms being 'bad', 'wrong', 'terrible', 'disturbing', or 'hurtful'."

 

Upon seeing the truth of what is going on in one's mind, this mind doesn't need anyone to be there to be listening to any 'disturbed feelings and emotions', as there's none. There's no problem that need to be shared or talked about. This is maturity. This is real independence. This is freedom. But, unfortunately not many people appreciate this independence and freedom, but only looking forward to be building mental and emotional connection and dependency among one another to feel good and meaningful.

The teachings/practice/process of freeing the mind from ignorance and egoism, it's not something pleasant or agreeable to the worldly ignorant egoistic passionate minds at all, but it can effectively free the mind from suffering deriving from ignorance and egoism.

It's everyone's freedom for what they want to practice, or not.

Be free.

Retreat?

A retreat centre is a place for Sadhana, to retreat the mind from worldly habits of social interactions and activities to silent the restless mind. Live alone, sit alone, walk alone, eat alone, meditate alone. It's not an open house for community social recreation activities making social connections hanging out together busy chatting and gossiping, plotting and planning to chase away boredom and loneliness and empowering worldly attachments and identifications. Even in everyday life, one observes silence as much as possible renouncing worldly social interactions and activities, immerse in solitude and seclusion to be determined to annihilate the modification of the mind. Very few people indeed have this understanding and determination.

Before, during and after the yoga class

Attending yoga classes is what most people do when they think they want to learn and practice yoga.

Naturally, many people would also make use of the opportunity of joining yoga classes to be interacting or socializing with other people, to be making friendships or mixing into a 'yoga community', especially before and after the yoga class. People like to talk or have a conversation with other people getting to know each other, before and after the yoga class, and sometimes even during the yoga class, due to the restless outgoing passionate mind. Though there's nothing wrong with that, just that it's not what yoga practice is about.

Many people attend yoga classes are mainly for doing some yoga exercises to attain the goal of fitness training. Again, there's nothing wrong with that, just that it's not what yoga practice is about.

Silencing the mind or transcending the mind perception of worldly life existence of impermanent names and forms (which is the annihilation of the thinking mind under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities) is the main objective of performing all kinds of yoga practice, whether people like or agree with it, or not.

Getting to know about this mind or what is going on in this mind is the practice.

Restraining the outgoing mind to turn the mind inward for self-introspection is the practice.

Quieting the restless busy mind is the practice.

Withdraw the senses from the objects of the senses is the practice.

Reducing and restricting mind activities and imprints (inputs and outputs) is the practice.

Reducing and restricting social interactions, conversations and activities is the practice.

Purifying the mind to free the mind from impurities is the practice.

Eliminating egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation is the practice.

Letting go worldly ideas, objects, thinking, belief and behavior is the practice.

Being dispassionate and disinterest towards worldly affairs, objects, ideas, activities, social interactions and relationships is the practice.

Going beyond the mind perception of names and forms of a worldly life existence that is impermanent and selfless (there's no 'I' existing to be in control of all the impermanent changes) is the practice.

Transcending the idea of 'I' and all kinds of fear and worry that exist due to the idea of 'I' is the practice.

Contemplating upon what is real and unreal is the practice - All kinds of impermanent names and forms in this worldly life existence perceived under the function of the mind is unreal. When the mind is absence there's no world. The nameless, formless, attributeless, changeless, beginningless, endless, birthless, deathless Brahman is real.

Before and during the yoga class, there might be some doubts in the minds of the yoga students, there might be some questions that they would like to ask the yoga teachers to get some answers to clear their doubts if possible.

During the yoga class, under the guidance of the teacher, everyone should be focusing on their own practice, being aware of and unattached towards the mind activities and reactions while performing the yoga practice according to the present condition of the body and the state of the mind, working diligently to quieting the restless outgoing passionate doubtful mind.

After the yoga class (Yoga practice that is about silencing the mind, freeing the mind from restlessness due to egoistic attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation), the minds that truly immersed into the practice will be in a momentary state of quietness, calmness and question-less, due to the effect of the practice of quieting the mind. They'll find that there are no more questions in the mind (the mind is silent), and if there is still doubt existing in the mind (the mind is moving), they understood that the answers to all their questions must be coming from their own direct experience and self-realization, it's not coming from asking other people (the teachers) to get some answers, as it won't clear their doubts, because they will never know whether the answers coming from other people (the teachers) are true, or not.

Those who know this, will continue to evolve and transcend the egoistic impure thinking mind, regardless any amount of difficulties and obstacles that might arise during the practice, without the supervision or guidance of any external teachers (in human form), without judgment or expectation, leading the mind towards silence of the mind - pure consciousness.

Those who don't know this, will be doing some forms of yoga exercises under the instructions of some other people (the teachers) regularly, but their minds might still be conditioned by worldly egoistic thinking, belief and behavior, being busy with the worldly affairs, objects, ideas, activities, social interactions and relationships, finding attention, love, support, acknowledgment, companionship, satisfaction, fulfillment and meaningfulness in this mind perception of a worldly life existence, while regularly attending the yoga classes, meeting up and mingling with other yoga enthusiasts/community, talking about the past, the present and the future, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, intentions and expectations, aspirations and inspirations, inspiring and motivating each other, and planning outing, gathering and doing some social activities together. And that's their freedom.

Be free.

Truthfulness and worldly social mingling and interaction

To practice truthfulness (one of the basic practice of yoga), we learn how to minimize as much as possible from engaging in worldly social mingling and interaction, because these worldly social activities empower egoism and strengthen worldly ideas, which is the opposite of yoga practice.

If we analyze our daily interactions and conversations with other people, we will see that it's mostly about the empowerment of egoistic personal and worldly attachment, identification, judgment, comparison, expectation, desires of craving and aversion, the past and the future. Yoga practice is to free the mind from all these mind activities of egoism. There is also intentional and unintentional hypocrisy, untruthfulness and ego flattering elements in many of the social interactions and conversations.

It's a normal cultural social politeness for many people to be HYPOCRITE and UNTRUTHFUL and FLATTERING when interacting with other people, to maintain 'good relationship' with everyone in the society and this game of hypocrisy and untruthfulness exists even among family members, couples and friends.

Most people don't want to know the truth as the truth is not necessarily something that they like or agree with.

Since little, everyone was being taught to be polite, to be good and say only good thing in front of everyone, to please other people, to gain love and liking, and acknowledgment/acceptance/recognition from other people, to maintain 'good relationship' with everyone, but then, behind people's back, there's complaints, gossips, slandering, back-biting, criticism, blame, or bitching. There are many this type of 'good relationships' everywhere in the worldly life. And this is being perceived as the 'correct' behavior or 'normal' way of life in the society and in the family. People don't like truthfulness and straightforwardness. Being truthful and straightforward is something very rude and wrong.

Truth seekers don't waste energy, time and effort in this worldly egoistic game of accumulating and cultivating such type of 'good relationships'. And hence, the practice of silence comes into everyday life to minimize involving in unnecessary social game of hypocrisy, untruthfulness and flattering of the ego of oneself and others. Performing selfless service in a huge community, is not about cultivating and accumulating personal friendships or relationships at all, if one truly knows what is selflessness and selfless service.

There are not many 'yoga and meditation enthusiasts' have the understanding, initiative and willpower to cut down or cut off worldly passionate social activities. It's a painful and contradicting process for the mind to retreat from worldly social activities, as it is going against 'normal cultural thinking and behavior'. There are lots of 'justifications' coming from the egoistic mind to avoid or give up renunciation from a passionate worldly life of social activities.

Those who aren't really interested in the path of yoga and meditation to free the mind from the root cause of all suffering - ignorance and egoism, they don't have to practice truthfulness or dispassion or renunciation from worldly social activities.

It's everyone's freedom for what they want to do with their life existence, and what they want to think and believe.

Eating by oneself? Enjoy the silent moment and be aware of the eating process...

We think and believe that eating by oneself is somehow 'not right' or 'not healthy'. We think there should be some kind of social conversation or interaction with some other people while having meals. We don't feel 'happy' to be having our meals by ourselves. We think it is strange and anti-social to be having meals by oneself.

But nobody would think and believe that when we do big and small 'business' in the toilet by oneself is anything 'not right' and 'not healthy'.

In the Ashram, we eat in silence. Even though there might be many people eating together at the same time in the huge dining hall, we should maintain silence and concentrate on our eating process. We don't talk nor socialize while eating. Same as during chanting session, yoga asana practice, or meditation practice, we don't talk or socialize. We don't think there's any anti-social elements in it. We don't think it is 'not right' or 'not healthy'. There must be reason why it is conducive for our yoga and meditation practice to be in silence most of the time.

When we realize what is oneness and non-separateness, beyond names and forms, there's no separation between ourselves and everyone and everything, even when we appear to be alone by ourselves in this moment now.

Minds...

Minds...

Minds.

Always busy. Constantly reacting towards what it perceives. Can’t stop thinking, constructing ideas and words, expressing and talking.

It either doesn’t know how to be quiet, or it doesn’t like to be silent even just for a few moments.

It’s interested in engaging interactive conversations with some other minds that it comes in contact with.

It expects some sorts of response or interaction in return.

It expects and thinks, as a ‘normal behavior’ in a society, there is obligation to engage and interact in a conversation whenever somebody started a conversation.

When there’s no response or interaction in return the way that it expected it to be,
It puzzles.
It feels abnormal.
It feels offended.
It generates different assumptions and judgements.

‘Why won’t you talk back to me when I am talking to you?’
‘Hello?! I am talking to you. Why don’t you say something or answer my questions?’
‘Are you angry with me?’
‘Are you unhappy?’
‘Is there something bothering you?’
‘Don’t you know how to be polite and response when somebody is talking to you?’
‘Don’t you know how to have a social conversation?’
‘Such an arrogant and rude person!’
‘Such a strange person.’
‘Ah! So frustrated and uninteresting to have a conversation with you!’
‘No fun talking to you!’
‘I’m not going to talk to you!’
………….