"I am transparent"

One day I came across a young man who felt he had been insulted and mistrusted. He just smiled and said – ‘It’s okay, I am transparent’, although seeing tears in his eyes it showed that he was hurt and felt sad.

If the mind still hasn’t detached from the ego and names and forms yet, we can use this saying to help us to go through difficult situations and to train the mind to become stronger and not bother about any insult or abuse.

Transparent might be used to explain namelessness and formlessness, but even being labeled as ‘transparent’ is also a name and form. It is still bound by name and form. The person who said this still felt hurt, but was also trying to be strong at the same time. There is still “a word”, or “a speech”, or “an action” being recognized as an insult, but the person tries to endure or ignore the insult. There is still the perception of a person giving the insult and another person receiving the insult.

If we practice namelessness and formlessness, we won’t give any values to words, speech, or actions. We see all negative and positive intentions are not different, all praise and censure are the same. When a person says something bad to us in a language that we don’t recognize, what is there for us to perceive as an insult? When a person does something bad to us in the way that we don’t recognize, what is there for us to perceive as abuse?

It is because we, or the mind, gives good and bad qualities to everything that we see and hear, and makes us feel praised or insulted. It is the ego that likes praise very much but strongly rejects insults. If the mind is free from the ego, we will not be affected by what we see or hear. That is similar to the meaning of namelessness and formlessness. It is not that we can’t see or don't hear anything. The action is there, the sound is there, but if we give them no meaning at all, then “where” is the praise and “what” is the insult? If we are selfless, then “who” is being praised or insulted? When we realized non-separateness where we are not separated from all, then “who” is there giving praise or insults? If there is praise or insult, ‘I’ am the one who give it to ‘myself’.

We can’t deny that we have a body to experience pain and pleasure. We have a life to live. We have duties and responsibilities that we need to carry out. We have family and friends that need our attention, love and care. We have happy feelings and unhappy feelings. Everyone, including rich and famous people, has to go through all these so called life experiences, including those people who chose to renounce the world and become a Sannyasin – a monk or a nun, except their duty and responsibility now is towards everybody and not just towards their families and friends. Sannyasin also have feelings, but one of their duties towards themselves is to detach from the thoughts, feelings and emotions, and not be affected by them.

Not being affected by our feelings doesn’t mean ignoring them or suppressing them, but by not identifying with them and letting them pass away.

Real detachment is not about letting go of our relationship with our family or our partner, or being irresponsible towards our family and our work, unless all kinds of worldly duties and responsibilities have come to an end.

It is letting go of the expectation and judgment towards our loved ones, so that their actions and reactions will not determine or affect our tranquility, clarity, faith, practice, self-improvement and self-control.

Real detachment is the mind detaching from its own modification of the mind, the thoughts, the ego, the physical body and the senses of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch and thinking. Once the mind is detached from all these ‘things’ that is happening within the body, then whatever the mind perceives outside this body will not affect this mind at all. Everything out there will have no power to make us happy or unhappy.

And it doesn’t matter if we are with somebody or on our own, or whether we have a family life or are single and independent, or whether we renounce the world or live in the world. Our faith and the meaning of life remain the same, our spiritual understanding and the goal of all spiritual practice remains the same.

It is not about neglecting or denying our life or what we are doing. It is about living in the world but not being affected by all the ups and downs in our life and all that is happening in the world. We see all beings are equal and everything that happens in the world is the same. Detach from the duality of praise and censure, heat and cold, likes and dislikes, cravings and aversions, happiness and suffering, beauty and ugliness, young and old, strong and weak, good health and bad health, rich and poor, gain and loss, birth and death.

Detachment from duality of whatever the mind perceives through the senses is true detachment. We are being fooled and blinded by the ignorance in our own mind and the ego all the time. It is not the smart intellect that can give us peace of mind - in fact it gives us so many troubles, fears and worries.

Letting go of troubles, fears and worries that make us so tensed and anxious all the time is the real detachment.

To annihilate the ego and egoism, is the essence of all detachment.

It is because of the ego that we need to practice detachment in order to transcend suffering. Without the ego, there is no suffering, there is no need for detachment and there is no need for Yoga practice. The world is okay, life is okay, everyone and everything is fine without this ego.

It is because of the ego that we have likes and dislikes, anger, greed, lust, jealousy, arrogance, hurt, dissatisfaction, disappointment, unhappiness, bitterness and low self esteem, feel good or feel bad about ourselves and towards other people. It is because of the ego, we think that we are very good or not good enough. It is because of the ego that we want ‘this’ and don’t want ‘that’.

All this makes us suffer and feel unhappy, whereas in fact ‘thinking’ that all our suffering is the fault of people and events out there, is what make us suffer and unhappy.

It is due to fears and worries that we want to be in power and in control of everything. If we truly understand the law of nature, we will stop wanting to control how things are, because we will have no more fears and worries, but we will have control over our own self and not desire to control anybody or anything outside of us. Our willpower is stronger than our mind, the ego and everything that can influence us.

A wise man will not try to manipulate or hypnotize anyone to do anything, even if it is out of a good intention because if manipulation or hypnotization works, people in the world could easily be manipulated or hypnotized to be good, to do good and the world would be in peaceful harmony. There wouldn’t be any wars or crimes. Even though there were many saints and sages, like Buddha, in the world before, but they didn’t use their power of enlightenment to manipulate or hypnotize anybody to listen to them and turn everybody into good people and take away people’s suffering with their great power. 

There would be no suffering in this world and no bad people in the world if any enlightened being could manipulate and hypnotize everybody easily with the power of hypnotism, to make the world into a peaceful harmonious place.

They did not.

Why?

Because of the law of nature, the law of karma and the Truth do not run by this way.

No doubt that the compassion and wisdom from an enlightened person might can touch people’s hearts, but it is up to everyone to think on their own, to act and to speak on one’s will. Everyone is the choreographer of their own destiny. If Buddha could have stopped all wars, violence, hatred, discrimination, selfishness, greed, corruption and suffering with certain influencing power, he would have done it. But he didn’t, as it's not possible.

Any action that is other than working on our own self-control is not the real practice for achieving liberation. Any so called short-cut that uses a certain type of manipulation or hypnotism or drug therapy which acts as an external element to influence our mind or to control our thoughts, actions and speech, but not through self-inquiry, self-effort, self-control, purification and detachment, is not the path of self-realization.

If a person sees some kind of image or hears some kind of sound in his attempt for achieving enlightenment by using external forces to help him and becomes attached to these phenomena, he might still be miserable and craving for more supernatural experiences by using such external forces. This is very far away from the Truth and self-realization.

If a person does all sorts of actions under hypnotism or under the influence of drugs without his own willpower to control his body and mind, and cannot perform the same actions without this external force, then this is certainly not the practice for self-realization, even if that action is supposed to be good for him.

Hypnotism is about influencing the energy fields in the body and mind, and manipulating the mind – it is an external force and causes temporary effect. If our mind is being controlled or influenced by an external force, it is not self-realization.

It is worst when some people with evil intention use the technique of hypnotism to rob somebody’s money or belongings.

Anything that arises, changes and passes away – momentary, impermanent or temporary, that changes selflessly, is not real. Using drugs or hypnotism to help someone to get temporary relief from painful feelings or to perform certain actions or to experience something that is supernatural is not wrong - but it is not the end of suffering or the goal of our practice, simply because it can’t permanently remove our ignorance - the cause of suffering. It can’t root out our ego, fears, worries, attachment, likes and dislikes, and it doesn’t destroy all our accumulated karma. It can’t liberate us from the cycle of birth and death – the inevitable suffering of restless impermanent changes of the selfless body and modification of the mind.

It is intuitional wisdom that leads us to liberation.

It is willpower and self-control - beyond all attributes, qualities, energies, elements, actions and inactions, dualities, names and forms, which will free us from suffering permanently.

Prana affects or moves the modification of the mind, or the state of the mind, the modification of the mind influences the action and speech, but we learn to go beyond the modification of the mind, by purifying and disciplining and quieting the function of the mind. When our willpower is stronger than the function of the mind (through self-control or self-restraint), the Prana (energy) no longer influences the state of the mind and our willpower is the controller of our action and speech. The Prana is influenced by the 3 Gunas – Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Sattva makes us feel calm and peaceful, rajas makes us feel passionate, ambitious, restless and energetic, and Tamas makes us feel lazy, dull and negative. Our body and mind are governed by these Gunas (energy). Vedanta teaches us to go beyond these 3 Gunas, go beyond the energy field, and have total self-control over the body and mind. We should continue practice until we realize oneness, where there is no internal or external influences, because there is no separateness.

Real beneficial action for anybody should be done by oneself, under one’s willpower and with complete self-awareness.

Self-reliance and self-control is the path towards liberation, absolute freedom. If we need to depend on anybody or anything external to be ‘liberated’, it won’t be real liberation. This is the advice from all the saints and sages in the past.

May we all attain true freedom.

How to transcend suffering?

Pride and low self-esteem is a form of suffering. We will be craving for worldly success, spiritual achievements, social status, appreciations and recognition, love and attention, beautiful appearance and attractive personality, and wanting to achieve all our desires and being able to do what we like to do in order to give us the feeling of success, happiness and confidence.

Even though we are very successful in life and have done whatever we wanted to do in life, we will still be discontented and feel meaningless if we attached to the worldly achievements and happiness that are conditional and impermanent to make us feel good about ourselves and our life. Even if we attached to spiritual achievements that are also conditional and impermanent in order to make us feel meaningful and feel good will also bring us suffering. It is because all these will change and disappear.

Our sense of self-worth needs to hold on to certain thing or faith to makes us feel good and happy, or feel meaningful in life. This is very normal. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. But what will happen to us if this thing is not available to us anymore, or if the faith that we hold on to is not there anymore? We will collapse, unhappy, depressed and feel meaningless.

It is because there is an attachment. We attached to something that is perishable and not real in order to give us happiness, and to have a sense of self-worth or a meaningful life.

If we really want to transcend suffering, we need to learn how to become independent without attaching to anything at all in this world of limited mind perception of selfless impermanent names and forms to make us feel full, worthy, content and meaningful.

We don’t need to do anything to show to anyone and to prove to anybody that we are good, or we have certain values or purposes. We don’t need to feel that we are being needed by someone to have a sense of self-worth and to give us some meaning or purpose in life.

We don’t even need to crave for love from anybody, but can give pure love (void of selfish desire, lust and passion) without identification and expectation because we all are not separated from the unlimited love itself if we realized the Truth of selflessness. When we stop identity ourselves with the selfless body, the selfless mind, the non-existent ego, the selfless intellect, the selfless senses and our selfless life existence, this selfless impermanent existence is not different and not separated from the nature - the earth, the sun, the wind, the water and the space. The nature allows every living beings and everything to be in it and utilize its resources for the basic need to be existing. Nature gives unconditionally without beginning and without ending. Its power to be powering all and everything in this space of the universe, is unlimited and unconditional. There is no differentiation of likes and dislikes, birth and death, happiness and unhappiness, good people and bad people, good happenings and bad happenings, animals and human beings, beautiful and ugliness, or cleanliness and dirtiness. There is no duality - all and everything is the one same nature of selflessness and impermanence, no differences and no special privileges, no superiority or inferiority. The nature accepts everything as it is, not controlling anything, and has no selfish intention at all. The nature has no attachment or identification towards its actions, or its impermanent condition, or the consequences of its actions. It has no identity, no selfishness, no jealousy, no anger, no hatred, no differentiation, no ego, no pride, no self-esteem, no sense of purpose, no happiness, no unhappiness… it has no qualities at all. Everything is just being what they are. There is no past. There is no future.

If we, this ignorant thinking mind, realized this, there is no fear, worry, conflict, cravings and aversions, likes and dislikes, grief and sorrow, pleasurable enjoyment or painful suffering, happiness or unhappiness. Other people might still be disagreeing with us, and want to have conflict or argument with us, but we don’t have any conflict or argument with them, even if we disagree with them. We are full, content, and immovable. This unconditional peacefulness and contentment is not achieved by acquiring anything from the outside, but it's by letting go of everything, not controlling anything out there to be or not to be in certain way, but having firm self-control in our own thoughts, actions and speech. Our own self is the only thing that we can have control of, and will give us peace of mind if the thoughts, actions and speech are being well controlled. If we try to control anything other than our own thoughts, actions and speech, we will be in trouble and suffering. We will be creating problems for ourselves.

We cannot control the selfless impermanent changes in our body and outside our body - the breathing, the heart beat, the pleasant and unpleasant sensations that arise and pass away unceasingly, the senses coming in contact with the objects of the senses, the nature's law of cause and effect governing all and everything and the condition and situation in the world, and how other people think, feel, act, react, express and speak. The one thing that we can do is let them be, and let things being what they are. And then we will not generate any problem or conflict and unhappiness in ourselves and to other people.

We cannot stop the thoughts and feelings that keep arising and passing away unceasingly in our mind, but we can stay detached, not identify or associate with it. And then, let it disappears by itself eventually. Not trying to reject uncomfortable feelings or holding on to comfortable feelings. Just being aware of their existence, but give no value to them. Not to categorize them into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘comfortable’ and ‘uncomfortable’, and not generate likes and dislikes, craving and aversion, and also no need to react towards them.

By bringing the awareness focusing on the breath without trying to control the breath or change anything, and keeping the attention or focus in the present moment at all time, will help us to detach from any feelings and sensations that arise in our body and mind. Whenever we find that our awareness has wandered away to the thoughts or the feelings, without feeling frustrated, very gently we bring the awareness back to the breathing, back to the present moment, focusing on what we are doing now and where we are now. By keep doing this, we will find that actually there are no problem that is troubling us now, and there are no past pleasant and unpleasant memories and future wild anticipations and imaginations that can disturb us, disturb our tranquility and peacefulness.

The outgoing tendency of the mind will make us feel curious and anxious about the things outside. It wants to know, to see, to hear, to smell, to taste, to think and to feel about everything. It will continue to pull our attention away from what we are doing and where we are now at the present moment. We should not struggle with it, and patiently we bring the awareness back to what we are doing now. Slowly this exercise or training will become natural and effortless, and it doesn’t request much effort to keep the awareness to stay in the present moment. This is what gives us calmness. But even this state of calmness we also cannot attach onto, because this state of peacefulness will change also. If we attached onto the state of calmness, we will be very disappointed, irritated and unhappy when this state of calmness is being disturbed or disappeared.

If we can let go of the state of disturbance caused by unpleasant thoughts and feelings, and be able to let go of the state of calmness as well, then we will be in a state of unconditional peacefulness and happiness. We don’t need anything to give us the meaning of life, the sense of self-worth, or confidence. We are what we are. I am what I am.

It doesn’t matter at all with how other people think of us, do to us, or say to us. There is no praise or censure that can affect us or influence us. There is no need to have judgment, criticism, comparison and competition with other people or with our own self. We don’t need to challenge ourselves to do anything or to achieve anything. We don’t need to prove to ourselves or to other people.
 

In the beginning, we might need to have a faith to hold on to. Or else, we will be drifting all the time in search for something that will give us some meanings in life and give us some values about ourselves and our existence in this world. But this faith should be something real and imperishable. Then only this faith will be really firm and everlasting in our heart no matters what is happening in our life and when there are impermanent changes happening in our body and the mind. And we will not be lost or disappointed because this faith that we rely on is still there, it will not change or disappear.

If we depend on something that will change to be in happiness and to have the sense of self-worth, and are attaching strongly to that happiness and sense of self-worth, but when this dependency is being taken away by impermanence, we will be lost in disappointment and unhappiness. Such like, many people’s faith or happiness is built on material possession and enjoyment, accumulation of success and wealth, sensual pleasurable enjoyments, fame and popularity, being loved and admired by others, having strong and healthy physical body, intelligence and achievements in education, success in business or career, having good family ties, good relationship and friendship, and having a strong religion belief or spiritual practice under certain belief or teacher.

But all these are conditioned by our limited perception and impermanence, and will go through impermanent changes eventually, and is unsatisfying. We cannot be truly contented, if we rely on all these impermanent objects and names and forms to give us satisfaction and meanings of life.

When we teach yoga to other people, we are doing something very meaningful in life sharing the wisdom of Yoga with others and might be able to help some people to come out from suffering, but we also need to remain detached from our action of teaching yoga and the fruit of the action of teaching yoga. It is not that we deny ourselves, or being hard on ourselves, but it is the only thing that will free us from unhappiness and suffering.

If we feel good and happy about ourselves and our life existence when the students have learnt something from us, and they are being grateful, and will take Yoga practice more seriously from now on, this means we are still being conditioned by this attachment towards the  action and the fruit of actions. It is a good thing when the students are benefited after taking some lessons from us. And there is nothing wrong at all to feel great about that. But we should stay detached from all these as well. Then we will be 'safe', and not being caught up in the fruit of action.

When the students start to decline in their practice, or they criticize about our teaching, and didn’t have interest in our teaching, or they encounter difficulty in certain yoga practice and hurt themselves during taking classes under us, this will make us feel bad about ourselves and be guilty and unhappy, if we have attachment towards the fruit of our actions. And then, it will destroy our faith in Yoga and our practice, and destroy the sense of meaningfulness in ourselves and in life existence.

Of course we should be responsible for our action and the consequences of our action. If we are not experience enough, or made some mistakes, or being careless, then we should be responsible for the consequences that arise, and should make some corrections to improve ourselves.

But the real lesson is not about this.

It is about our self-worth or faith should not be depending on satisfaction and happiness coming from any type of success and achievement in any fields, or depending on recognition, agreement, compliment and appreciation from anybody.

If we think that our life is so meaningful and are happy because we feel that we had helped somebody by doing something really good and meaningful, then very soon we will be losing this feeling of meaningfulness and happiness when we receive some bad and negative feedback from the students, or when we are not able to share Yoga with others anymore due to certain unavoidable reason.

Unless we have no attachment towards any of these things at all, then we will not be affected by all the good and bad results deriving from our actions.

That is real detachment, and is free from dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

True happiness is not the happy feelings that we feel when something good is happening or when our wishes come true. This momentary sense of happiness will come to an end and disappear after some times, and we will be unhappy and feel meaningless when this feeling of happiness is gone.

If we need to do something good to make us feel meaningful, and we will feel meaningless if we are not doing those good actions, then we are being bound by this dependency, and caught up in dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

It is like our Prana is being influenced by the food that we consume and by the body movement and position that we are engaging in – such like being in certain Yoga Asana. The position of the body is influencing the Prana, and this Prana is influencing our state of mind and feelings. There is nothing wrong to eat good food to make us feel happier and calmer. There is nothing wrong to practice Yoga Asana to make us feel good and relaxed. But Yoga teaches us to go beyond both good and bad feelings, go beyond the states of the mind, go beyond the energy and energy fields, not rejecting unpleasant sensations and bad feelings, and not clinging onto or craving for pleasant sensations and good feelings. The energy influences the body and the states of the mind, but the body or the states of the mind is not 'I'. The will power in the selfless thinking mind is stronger than the body and the states of the mind. And if, there is no attachment or identification arising in the mind towards the body and the states of the mind, this selfless mind that is void of the idea of 'I', is void of suffering, resting upon the selfless consciousness, and not being affected by any type of energy fields and selfless impermanent changes. Because energy and impermanence can only affect the body and the states of the mind, but it cannot affect the selfless Self, or the selfless consciousness.

If this mind doesn't know this, we will feel good, only if we eat good food and are doing certain Asana practice. But we will feel bad or don't feel good anymore, if good food is not available to us and we are not doing any Asana practice.

Realize selflessness, free from the idea of 'I', and be independent from depending of anything in this impermanent world of mind perception to be happy and confident, or not, detached from the actions and the fruit of actions, that will lead to true happiness and the real meaning of life – realizing the truth of selflessness and impermanence.

The meaning of life is not something depending on what we do or don't do, or depending on the sense of self-worth and happiness that arise from what we do and don't do, what we have and don't have, and what we experience or don't experience, but by realizing the true nature in all and everything, which is selflessness and impermanence, and be free from the ever dissatisfying passionate egoistic mind and the binding of the fruit of actions that arise from our thoughts, actions and speech.

If we depend on someone’s love and affection, this will change.

If we depend on our good feelings, this will change.

If we depend on our strength, flexibility, youthfulness, attractiveness, beauty and good health of the physical body, all these will change.

If we depend on our teacher, our parents, our partner, our children, and our family and friends, all these will change.

If we depend on success, achievements, intelligence, worldly knowledge and good memory, all these will change.

If we depend on anything at all that is limited and conditioned by this selfless body and the selfless mind, the selfless senses and all the selfless objects of the senses in this worldly life of impermannece, everything will change.

So, what is the real thing that will not change?

It is the selfless Self that all and everything rest upon, that doesn't belong to anyone and anything. It is not 'I', or 'my Self'. It is the only real permanent independent existence – no birth and no death, no beginning and no end, no good and no bad, unconditioned, unlimited, independent, free from qualities, impurities and elements. It is full and whole, pure existence, pure knowledge and pure bliss.

Let us, or this thinking mind under the influence of ignorance and egoism, stop identifying with the impermanent physical body and the conditional function and restless modification of the selfless mind. We are not this body, we are not this mind. This body is not ours, this mind is not ours. They don’t belong to us. And there is no 'us' or 'I'. This body and mind is just a selfless impermanent instrument being here to learn and return to the nature of everything – which is indestructible, non-decay and eternal.

Go beyond the selfless body, the selfless mind, the selfless intellect, the selfless senses, and the non-existing ego or the idea of 'I'. Go beyond the duality that the mind perceives through the senses.

Realize the truth of selflessness in all and everything. Realize the selfless changeless timeless birthless deathless universal Self now. There will be no more fear and worry. The mind will be free from all the turbulence of impermanent feelings and emotions, all the ups and downs in life, good and bad experiences in life.

At the end, it’s just like a very long movie, or a very long dream that we have, which gives the selfless perceptive thinking mind some experiences of impermanent changes, agreeable and disagreeable relationship and interaction, satisfaction and dissatisfaction, fear, confusion, pain, sorrow, excitement, enjoyment, suffering, happiness and unhappiness.

May we all be free.

A letter to a student

When a person is REALLY detached from all the names and forms, and not being affected by all the things (positive and negative energy) out side, then eating vegetarian or not vegetarian will have no difference at all. But if a person is affected by the external energy from the surrounding and the energy from the food, then avoiding bad energy places, bad energy people and by eating vegetarian will help a person to become calmer and less negative, but it is not a guarantee for enlightenment.

No doubt that by not eating meat is supporting the idea of non-harming other being’s lives – Ahimsa. And yet the real Ahimsa is not just through what we eat but by protecting the lives of others including animals and insects, and also non-harming in our thoughts, actions and speech – so that we will not hurt anyone’s feelings or harming somebody’s live; inflict fear, pain, anger and hatred onto the being's mind.

Most important is the practice of detachment from craving for the taste that we like and aversion towards the taste that we don’t like. Along with detach from what we eat, detach from what we see, hear, smell, touch and think, is the real detachment.

What we need to take care of is the practice of self-control, patience, compassion, wisdom, selflessness, detachment and NOT HARMING in our thoughts, speech and actions. We must think carefully before we do something or want to say something, so that the intention is pure without the influence of arrogance and egoism. Do things and say things that are promoting peace and harmony among other people, and not promoting discomfort and unhappiness among other people.

Many people out there are not the same thinking and same understanding like us. We cannot explain to the people who don’t know what real detachment is, about eating vegetarian or not vegetarian. Basically, we want to promote vegetarian for everyone who are usually being affected by the energy from the food that we eat.

People are very much attached to the mind, the ego, the body, the life and the world – we are being influenced and affected by all the phenomena happenings within our body and in our everyday lives in the world. Whatever we come in contact with will influence and affect our mind. We are very much influenced by both the negative and positive energy surrounding us from the people in the society, the culture from our tribe, the many years of school education, the information that come from the media, the happenings in the world, the contents in books and movies, the teachings and advice from the elders and everything else that we come in contact with.

Our thinking is being influenced so much by others’ thinking from everywhere in the world but without us realizing it – ignorance. We think that we need to have “this” and “that” to be happy. We also need to do “this” and “that” to make us feel good about ourselves. Our self-worth is being determined very much by how other people think of us, how much others like us and whether others appreciate us and recognize what we do or not.

It is not easy for us to break out completely from that little “box” and long time thinking habit. Even though when we think that we are aware of this dharma but not many of us can really detach from all these “things” that are “truly” giving us all the “problems” that we “think” we are “having” now. People still have great fear of the unknown and worry about their future. If we are really detached from all these ignorance, there shall be no problems at all. There is no unhappiness. There is nothing to gain or lose. Once we attached to any of these ignorance, we will be in trouble. Everything is real and also unreal – everything is changing, arising and passing away, there is no past and no future. Everything is NOW, NOW is everything.

When a person has not really detached from duality yet, he is affected very much by the energy from the food that he eats – His mood and personality changes according to the energy that is released from the food that he eats. Then this type of people need to be careful of what they eat and should choose only the Sattvic food – that promote lightness and calmness (no meat, no fish, no onion, no garlic, no mushroom, no eggs, no coffee, no spices, no salt, no sugar, no alcohol, no drugs…) It is not just about meat. Many plants will have different types of effects on many people, like ganja, mushroom, over-ripe fruit and overly cooked vegetables are Tamasic – promote laziness, depression and dullness. While onion, garlic, coffee and chives are Rajasic – promote passion, agitation and aggressiveness.

For a Yogi who practice namelessness and formlessness without cravings and aversions, he doesn’t see the food as “meat” or “vegetables”, “good” or “bad”. What he eats is just food for him for maintenance of the physical body only. He does not eat due to the craving for the taste, even if it is vegetarian food. The energy from food cannot affect him, unless he is not yet detached from all the names and forms of all the things out there, such like praise and censure, happy and unhappiness, cold and heat, birth and death, success and failure.

If he is not detached from duality yet, if he still has fear and worries, he will still be affected by the energy from the food that he eats. Then it is better for him to eat vegetarian food without meat, fish, garlic, onion, eggs, mushroom and without any stimulative or depressive substances to help him in his practice.

But if he has self control and is detached from duality; does things without any intention (good or bad), without egoism and knows clearly about what he is doing (no one will know but himself), then he can eat whatever the food is, as long as it can maintain his physical body and stay healthy to continue his practice towards self-realization.

As well as around the world, there are so many people are starving without enough food to eat. How can we sit here and argue about eating vegetarian or not vegetarian? Merely wasting time and effort in arguing on this issue and not working on the real practice of self-control over lust and desires, and the detachment of likes and dislikes, what is the meaning of our Yoga practice then?

We should respect everyone with their own choices for food consumption whether it is pure vegetarian or meat eating. If we have the opportunity to have pure vegetarian food, it will be our first priority option. But if pure vegetarian food is not available, we shouldn’t be so attached to the idea of “meat is dead animals and it is disgusting”. Some people are born without the enzyme to digest fruit and vegetables and have to eat meat only – does this make them bad people? Some people are born without the enzyme to digest meat and have to eat fruit and vegetables only – does this make them good people?

Food might be affecting the mind but it cannot determine the mind. It doesn’t determine our actions and speech. If it is determining the mind, we cannot have any self-evolution and there is no need to have any austerities and practices for us to achieve any spiritual goals. Because if it is mainly because of food energy a person will be good or bad, then by eating certain food, we will become evil and just by eating certain food we will become enlightened. That means we have no self-control at all and being driven by the energy in the food to determine what we think, what we do and what we speak. It is not like that. There is another element in us called will power, which is the force that can influence the energy (Prana) in our body and give us self-control over our thoughts, actions and speech.

If it is so easy to be good and happy; become enlightened and be free from suffering just by eating pure vegetarian food, then why do we need to do so many other hard works?

The mind and the ego like to blame on something else for their actions and not want to take any responsibilities for the consequences that arise following their actions, and they make excuses in order to achieve their cravings and desires.

It is our ability of self-control that determines the mind. It is our own effort to purify our mind and have total control of our actions and speech. It is our own self to determine what we want to do and say, and whether we want to be good or be bad.

Many people are turning to eat pure vegetarian food and some people turn it into an exotic and luxurious business of food industry. It is because pure vegetarian food not only can promote good health (although not necessary – people still suffer illness or cancer even though they have been eating so called pure vegetarian and healthy food), but many people are very much attached to the idea of keeping a slim body and want to achieve a beautiful physical appearance more than the idea of non-harming the lives of the animals.

Most people want to look good, stay slim and fit, and looking attractive – because it will make them feel good about themselves. They will feel bad about themselves and being unhappy when they think that they don’t look good, have put on some extra body weights and body fats. They will try to go on a diet, do lots of exercises trying to get rid of that few grams of fats, and make themselves feel good again. There is nothing wrong about this, but it is not the initial idea of being a vegetarian in Yoga practice and it is not what Yoga wants to teach us about not to attach to our physical body and the outlook of our appearance – in fact this idea to eat vegetarian food is due to the strong attachment towards the physical body.

If our happiness or our feelings is being determined by how we look – the physical appearance, the clothing, the skin texture, the facial features, the youthfulness and the fitness level, then this is very far away from detachment and the path of Yoga.

Some people do not want to kill any animals because they are afraid of committing sins or bad karma and afraid of seeing blood or dead body, and not out of great compassion towards these animals. While in everyday life they might be enjoying eating meat prepared by someone else. And some people are being a pure vegetarian but in everyday life, they are cursing or condemning somebody who they hate into hell; speaking lies and harsh words hurting some others’ feelings; slandering and mocking somebody behind people’s back; and being stingy and torturing their spouse, their parents or their children physically and emotionally with their action and speech… This is not Yoga.

Being a pure vegetarian or not, really doesn’t reflect about our true Self, if we still have likes and dislikes, attachments and cravings; if we still identify with the ego and the mind, and are attached strongly to our physical body and its conditions; and also if we are full of evil thoughts, actions and speech; as well as being unhappy and negative most of the time.

So, what is the real and important practice then?

The practice of patience, perseverance, compassion, wisdom, cheerfulness, fearlessness, detachment and letting go. Purifying the thoughts, actions and speech; eradicate lust, greed, anger, jealousy and hatred. Observe truthfulness, sincerity, forgiveness and tolerance. Detach from our physical body – the changes in our physical health, strength, flexibility, ability and appearance. Detach from the ego and the mind. Detach from our senses and the worldly objects. Detach from all the names and forms, and duality. Detach from likes and dislikes, craving and aversion. Being at the present moment at all time, not hold on to the past and not project into the future.

We don’t have to justify ourselves about what we are doing to anybody who doesn’t understand what real detachment and non-duality is, if we are REALLY detached from duality – likes and dislikes, craving and aversion; and have no fear at all.

You already have quite a good understanding about Yoga practice, but we should watch our mind all the times and remind ourselves not to let the pride and ego over power our thoughts, actions and speech. When we start to think – “I am better than you”; “I know already”; “I know more than you do”; “I want to do this or that”; “I am helping someone”; “I am doing good”; “Don’t you think I know”; “Who do you think I am?” and either “I am not good” or “I am very good” – then we have to be very careful, know that it is the ego and the pride want to express themselves.

If we think or believe that we need to be at certain place; or need to do certain thing; or need to be “somebody”; or need to possess certain thing or need to be in control of anything other than our own self, in order to make us feel good or feel better about ourselves, then know that it is just the mind and the ego being unsatisfied and need “those things” to make us feel good and feel happy about ourselves – Our self-worth and happiness is being determined by where we are; who we are; what we have; what we do and how others think about us.

If this happens on us, we should be careful so that we are not caught up in this condition of the mind. We should detach ourselves from the condition that will determine whether we are good people or not, successful or not – Either we will want to show off or want to prove to ourselves and others that we are good enough; or will feel good and feel happy about ourselves and our lives only if we are able to do the things that we like to do or want to do, or else we will feel bad and unhappy with ourselves and our lives if we can’t do the things that we like to do and want to do.

All these conditions mean that we are still identifying with our ego. We are still very much attached to our mind, the likes and dislikes, craving and aversion.

This is not easy for many people to understand and to be able to do it. Even though some people understand this but find it very difficult to practice it in everyday life. It takes a long time for us to master this detachment and yet we will still be caught up many times repeatedly with the mind and the ego no matter how hard we try to stay detach. But fear not, not to be disappointed with ourselves and keep on practice detachment.

Never say that this will never happen to any one of us, it will – sooner or later… just keep watching our mind; what is going on in there, but do not project into the future or keep thinking that – “the ego and the pride is going to over power us”. And when it does happen, be aware, don’t let it gain control over us. We should move on with greater understanding and stronger self-control, and become more selfless – until one day, the ego is powerless completely. We become selfless but are identified with the unlimited and unconditioned universal Self, and until then we will be safe…

There is no more “my life”; “my feelings’”; “my strength”; “my happiness”; “my achievements”; “my friends”; “my family”; “my ambitions”; “my liking”; “my Yoga”; “my practice”; “my knowledge”; “my duty”; “my job”; “my future”; “my past”; “my students”; “my house”; “my center”; “my reputation”; “my problems”; “my opinion” and so on…

There is no need for us to have any self-protection from any so called bad and negative energy, and we don’t need to attack others with actions and speech beforehand in order to protect ourselves because we anticipate that we will be attack by these people due to fear and low self-esteem in us.

We don’t need to anticipate any problems – Because there is no “me” or “I”, there is nobody being attacked or need any protection.

There is no fears and worries. There is nothing.

Anyway, we are practicing Yoga every moment in life even though when we do “nothing” (not doing Asana or not sitting for meditation). Everything is Yoga – eating, drinking, breathing, sleeping, walking, playing, working and resting (so-called worldly activities), but we remain total awareness of whatever we are doing. When we need to do something, we do it. When we don’t need to do anything, we don’t do anything. But it doesn’t mean that we are in a state of non-action or action-less. When the body is energetic, we move and do physical activities. When the body is tired, we take rest and do something that doesn’t require physical strength.

Some people like to ask us “how often do you practice yoga?” – In fact they want to know how often that we practice Asana. Actually they asked the wrong question or they have no right understanding about what is Yoga. Yoga practice is not separated from our everyday lives. It is nameless and formless. It is maintaining peacefulness and calmness every moment and not being affected, influenced or disturbed by all the phenomena that is happening around us. It is every moment watching our mind; observing the thoughts and feelings; detaching from the senses, the mind and the ego, and all the names and forms – detaching from duality.

Put it in a simple term – If we are happy and cheerful all the time disregard what is going on inside our body and the mind, and it doesn’t matter what is happening outside our body in the world that we perceive through the senses – no matters if it is something “good” or something “bad”. Everything is just fine. Everything is okay just the way as it is. Heat, cold, praise, censure, rich, poor, young, old, pretty, ugly, healthy, not healthy, action, non-action, birth, death, good feeling, bad feeling, gain, loss, agree, disagree, success, failure, fast, slow, “good people”, “bad people” – all make no differences and are the same. They don’t give us happiness or unhappiness. And this is Yoga.

But this doesn’t mean that we can kill animals and eat their meat because we like to eat meat. Or eat shit and sand; and drink poisons because being challenged by some very ignorant people saying that “since there is no differences and everything are the same, we can eat shit and sand; and drink poison; jump off from the cliff; cut ourselves with knife; burn ourselves with fire; and do all sorts of things to hurt other beings.” – This is huge ignorance. This is not what our Guru wanted to teach us about non-duality and how to transcend happiness and suffering; and be truly happy in life.

Our happiness and unhappiness has got nothing to do with anyone or anything out there.

It doesn’t matter how are the other people’s actions and reactions towards us. It is our own mind and the ego that is feeling happy or unhappy towards other people’s actions and reactions. Nobody can make us happy or unhappy. If we still think that someone is hurting us; something is still troubling us; then we need to look at ourselves and we will see that it is our own self had attached to the happenings out there, and the ego is feeling hurt and unhappy. Then we know that we are still not detached from our ego yet. And so, we need to work on our detachment and not blaming others for our unhappiness.

Many people still confuse about Yoga means Asana and pranayama practice. They are just part of the Yoga practice (with certain name and form) that helps us to achieve a calmer mind and a stronger body. Certainly they are not the whole of Yoga. As long as we are still being affected by all the elements and energy we need Asana and pranayama as well as wise company – Satsanga and pure vegetarian food to help us in the spiritual path. Yogis who are not affected by the elements and energy – they have total control over themselves – not being influenced or affected by anyone and anything, and thus they don’t need to perform any “practices” that have a certain name and form. Their practice has become nameless and formless. If they do perform certain practice, it is for showing to the people who need to have a guidance to follow and to practice.

The mind is always in actions even though when we don’t move or talk. Every moment we should be watching our mind and stay detached from every thought that arises. This is the ongoing action for us. Even when we dream, we still practice watching our mind to stay detach from the dream. This is action in non-action.

When we are doing something good and beneficial for other people and ourselves, we should not have the idea that we are doing some good actions – “I am doing something good”; or “I am giving something good to others”; or “goodness will return to me”. This is the meaning of non-action in action.

In every deals or actions or doings – There is “nobody” giving, there is “nobody” receiving and there is “nothing” being “given” or “received”.

This is the highest meaning of Yoga.

Detach from the fruit of action.

Everything that we do now and did before shall be nameless and formless.

Detach from all the names and forms.

Free ourselves from name and form, good and evil, positive and negative.

Free ourselves from rewards and karma – cause and effect.

Free ourselves from the bondage of all the elements that is creating the energy and affecting the mind.

Free from the duality that causes the likes and dislikes, craving and aversion.

Contemplate on these teachings and be free. If we know this dharma, there is no more fear and worries.

We were taught by our elders and the society that if we do good now, good things will happen to us in the future and do not do anything that doesn’t give us any rewards in return – this is correct in the eyes of worldly minded people.

It is true that if we do bad, bad will happen to us, while if we do good, good will happen on us. This is the law of karma – cause and effect.

There is nothing wrong to have this type of mentality – wanting to do good because we are longing for good rewards and good life in the future, but this can not free us from the bondage of birth and death, because we will be continuing being bound by karma – cause and effect.

Dharma and Vedanta teach us not to wish for any rewards in return when we do good and not to do any bad as well, and thus this will free us from the bondage of birth and death. It is intention-less or pure intention that will free us from the bondage of karma. It is ego-less or selflessness that will free us from the bondage of birth and death.

There is no need to aim for going anywhere after this life. We don’t need to go anywhere. Here at this present moment now is the only reality. The past and the future doesn’t exist. If we still have longing to go to heaven; or go to a better place; or to have a better next life; or we still have fear of ending up in hell or going to have a bad next-life; then we are still caught up in these names and forms, and are not free and have no peace of mind at all. We will have great fear and worries until this life ends and will continue having these fear and worries in the next life-form.

When we are dreaming, we are doing lots of actions in our dream. But this will not generate any karma for us.

If we know what “non-action in action” is and practice it in life when we are awake, we will not generate any karma too. We shall be free from the bondage of karma.

When we are awakened from this impermanent worldly life existence – Our physical body; our worldly life; our needs and wants; our appearance and all our experiences; we will know that all these are just temporary phenomena. And by stop identify with this physical body, the senses, the mind and the ego, this worldly life existence is not any different from a very long dream. We will still experience pain, pleasure, heat, cold, good looking, bad looking, sweet sound, annoying sound, nice smell, bad smell, good taste, bad taste, positive thoughts, negative thoughts through our senses, but we are not being influenced or affected by them anymore. They have no values of good and bad; positive or negative; happiness or suffering.

There is no more karma in the past – Sanchita, all the accumulated karma; in the present – Prarabdha, past karma that is responsible for the present body and until this body drop-off; and in the future – Agami, current actions that generate karma to be reaped off in the future. There is no past and future. There is no time, no space and no causation. This is the proclamation made by all the saints and sages when they attained enlightenment.

If we start to think that we are doing something when we are in action, or thinking that we are not doing anything when we are action-less, be mindful… It is the ego that is doing the thinking. Because the real us will have no idea of “doing good” or “doing bad”; “doing something” or “doing nothing”.

This knowledge is applicable to the student naturally when she or he already have achieved deep understanding about what is real detachment and have good morality and a pure mind. We ourselves also must practice it in life, in our heart. Or else it will create problems and confusions for the student and for us, if the student misunderstood that “no good and no bad” and “non-action in action” mean that they can do anything that they like and they will have no morality at all and will be doing lots of bad actions harming other beings thinking that there is no bad karma being generated. Those who are ignorant will think that this knowledge will allow them to do all the evil actions and no need to be responsible for their actions.

We don’t do evil actions because when our mind is pure, there is no reason for us to harm any beings and we don’t have the “urge” of wanting to cause any destruction and suffering to others. We also do not identify ourselves that we are the doer for any good and beneficial actions. We are not longing for a good life or greed for good karma or rewards in return. We are just being at the present moment, not longing to be in the past nor project into the future; and not longing to be at anywhere else. The present moment is now and right here. This is beyond both good and evil.

If the student has not yet understand this verse of “non-action in action”; if he or she is attached strongly to the mind and the ego; and his or her mind is not pure yet, then we shall begin with guide them into the practice of purification of the mind – to eradicate negative and evil thoughts and replace them with positive and good thoughts. Guide them to detach from the ego and duality; detach from likes and dislikes; free from cravings and aversions; detach from both negative and positive – become pure. Guide them to strengthen their self-control and develop insight. This may takes years or a lifetime. But this is the basic practice if we want to walk the path towards enlightenment; and to free ourselves from the cycle of birth and death.

May we all attain purity and be free. Both negative and positive thoughts, good and evil actions do exist in this life existence of names and forms. But what we want to practice is to go beyond both negative and positive; and transcend both good and evil. We do not commit any negative actions and not identify with any positive actions. It is neither negative nor positive. It is free from both negative and positive.

Om shanti.

Encouragement for sharing Yoga with all

I noticed that many Yoga students are struggling with uncertainty, lack of confidence and depression. Even as Yoga teachers we are still a student and are learning unceasingly and going through lots of turbulances.

This is a common mind ‘disease’ that is affecting lots of us. But actually it is nothing wrong and very normal for everybody.

Sometimes we feel good about ourselves, and sometimes we feel bad about ourselves. This is nothing wrong at all if we understand that this is the characteristic of all minds. It is not us. It is just a temporary flow of good feeling or bad feeling arising and passing away in our mind. All we need to do is (actually we don’t need to do anything) just observing these feelings of up and down and let them pass by and disappear without attaching to them, nor identify with them, and not generate any reaction, like and dislike according to these feelings.

But people who don’t understand this will see this happening of so called ‘mood swing’ as something not good, bad, or craziness. They categorize this mood swing is some kind of madness. It is because sometimes we are behaving nicely due to good mood and sometimes we are behaving nastily due to bad mood. At one moment we are laughing and another moment we are crying according to what we encounter with. It does look like madness. In fact everyone is having this ‘madness’ in our mind whether we show it through our facial expressions and bodily actions or not.

It is very normal that we will react to how we feel at the moment, or even react to how we felt in the past. Sometimes when we think of an unhappy incident that had happened many years ago, we will still feel some emotional pain and feel unhappy.

It is like we will judge someone with the past experiences or events that had happened before. It is because we still identify ourselves with our feelings and emotions, we are still identifying with the mind and the ego. It is also because we still caught up in the past, we haven’t realized that the only existent is the present moment.

It also depends on our level of attachment towards the past experiences or memories that determines our wrong view or ignorance about which is real and which is unreal? We are in confusion most of the time. Everything seems unclear to us.

Sometimes we feel happy and feel everything is easy for us when our mood is good, but we feel bad and feel everything is difficult for us when our mood is bad.

If this condition of mood swing continues to go on, there is possibility that we might get lost in these feelings of up and down, and become really crazy one day, when we lost the ability to control our feelings and emotions, and we are lost in the past memories and imaginations. We will be laughing, or crying, or angry, or depress due to the thoughts arising and passing away in our mind, even though in the present moment, in real there is nothing happening. We will be talking to our own self or shouting into the space thinking that there is someone there.

And so, we should be watchful about the mind all the time and maintain the ability to control over our mood swing, before it is too late.

Why shouldn’t we judge someone with the past experiences or events?
It’s because everything is changing all the time. Every mind is changing all the time. Personality is changing. Likes and dislikes are changing all the time. Everyone including ourselves is changing from time to time, from good to bad, from bad to good. From ignorance to wisdom, it can happen just within a single moment and from wisdom to ignorance, it can change within a second.

We are always changing from moment to moment even without us being aware of it. Sometimes we love someone very much but sometimes we feel disgust towards this same person. Sometimes we don’t love someone but one day we could be falling in love with that same person.

Everything that we like and dislike is ever-changing impermanent, whether if it is our sense of taste, smell, touch, seeing, hearing or thinking.

This is happening to everybody until the moment we stop identifying with the mind and the ego. And as long as we identify with our feelings and emotions, we will be moody all the time and not peaceful.

For example, a man that had been a very good person before can become very selfish and wicked after sometimes we didn’t see him. Or a man, who did something very bad in the past, might have become a very good person now. Or a person who have been very ignorant but might have gained wisdom after some time and a man who used to be wise might become deluded now.

So how can we judge anybody at all, including ourselves?

At this present moment, ‘this’ action will bring ‘this’ effect, and ‘that’ action will bring ‘that’ effect. Everything is a cause and effect. That’s all.

If a person told a lie before and people don’t trust him anymore, it is because of his action and he had created such cause for himself. He deserves not being trusted by other people due to his action, but this doesn’t determine that he is a liar or he will tell lies forever. Even though someone who is very honest in the past will not determine that he will not tell lies at all.

If we can stop mixing the past experiences (good or bad) with what we are doing now, it will reduce so much obstacle, unhappiness, doubt, fear and worries.

Good experiences might make us feel proud and lack of full effort in pursuing what we are doing now. And bad experiences might make us feel low self-esteem and full of negative thinking towards ourselves and other people.

As a Yoga teacher, at the beginning of teaching classes, we might not be so experienced yet in the technique of teaching classes. And due to nervousness we might make some mistakes in giving the instructions. We might get some feedback or criticism from the students. Sometimes the students stop coming for the classes. There maybe a lot of gossip about us and our classes.

Even though some people have been teaching for years and taught very good classes before, still sometimes we will still make mistakes or teach a lousy class.

So what? Are we going to be defeated and feel bad about ourselves and reluctant to teach classes anymore and feel low self esteem for the rest of our life, telling ourselves that we are not a good teacher? If we think like this, it means we are really not a good Yoga teacher because we don’t understand the true meaning of Yoga.

What the students really need to learn from us is detachment and cheerfulness. Not the quality of an Asana class. Asana class is ultimately teaching us about Vedanta philosophy, not just about learning how to perform the Asana. If a Yoga teacher can teach us how to thin out our ego, and show us what is detachment and non-dualism, then he or she is a good Yoga teacher. If a Yoga teacher can give a very good Asana class, performing and teaching many difficult acrobatic movements but doesn’t know what detachment is and doesn’t teach us about non-dualism and how to thin out the ego, then he or she is just a good physical fitness teacher only.

How are we going to cheer up others, encourage others and correct others wrong views if we ourselves have wrong views and low self esteem? Actually it is the ego feeling embarrassed and feels bad when we react to any feedback or criticism from anybody, whether it comes from the students or from our teacher or from other people.

Anyway lots of people who attend Yoga classes might not truly understand the meaning of Yoga and they will react to other people’s performance especially towards bad performance. It’s because they have a worldly minded habit of judging and criticizing everything that they come in contact with. They still have strong attachment to likes and dislikes.

One day they will like this teacher or the classes taught by this teacher, and one day they will dislike this same teacher and dislike the classes taught by this teacher. Also, sometimes they will like themselves and sometimes they don’t like themselves. So, why do we allow ourselves to depend on these people’s judgment or being determined by these people’s point of view based on a few classes that they have attended?

And if one day we teach a ‘good class’ and the students give us some good feedback and compliments, will that make us feel good and proud, and longing to teach the next class? If that’s the case, then we really are ignorant and being controlled by our ego. What Yoga are we going to teach to the students if we are affected by our own strong ego?

If a person truly understands the meaning of Yoga, he or she will not judge or criticize anything or anyone at all. Real Yoga practice will eventually lead us to stop judging and criticizing others and our own self, because we know how to detach from duality. When we detach from duality, there will be nothing out there for us to judge, to complain about, to criticize, to compare or to like and dislike.

He or she will be full of compassion and patience to accept both our abilities and weaknesses, and allow us to grow and improve in a slow process. A city is not being built within one day or one month. It takes years.

This is the essential learning for all Yoga students if they want to learn what Yoga really is.

This is also the same philosophy that all the Yoga teachers who want to be a good Yoga teacher should learn and practice - detach from duality, have compassion and patience, accept the abilities and weaknesses of the students, allow them to grow and improve in a slow process without any judgment, criticism, comparison, complaint and have no preferences or likes and dislikes.

Most important is that we accept our ability at this present moment and accept that we have weaknesses that need to be improved. We want to improve ourselves because we want to become a better human being and a better Yoga teacher, and not because we are being criticized by others and being challenged by our own ego.

In the end, what matters is not whether the students like our classes or not. It is not whether we can teach a good class or not. It is not about many people attend our classes or not.

What matters is the detachment from our teaching and our actions, detachment from judgment and criticism, detachment from the reactions from anybody and detachment from all the students.

Keep in mind that, every single hero or champion or successful person in the world, started his journey step by step, gained experience over time and learnt from many mistakes. We need to keep an open mind about any complaints, criticism and judgment from anybody, but not let these worldly acknowledgments affect us and our self-confidence at all. If we make a mistake, it doesn’t mean that we are not good. It doesn’t mean that we won’t improve and become better. It doesn’t matter if we make lots of mistakes and receive lots of criticism. Do not let it determine our ability and our path towards self evolution.

If we stop doing what we are doing just because we think that we are not good enough, or we received criticism saying that we are not good enough, then this is not Yoga practice. Yoga is to thin out the ego, detach from duality, detach from praise and censure, good and bad feelings. Keep going, never give up.

The Truth is no one will be good enough in any field in this world. But everyone also is good enough to do anything that they want to do and to express themselves freely. Everyone has the opportunity to learn and be better. It doesn’t matter if everyone prefers to go right but you prefer to go left. Be brave to explore something that we don’t know. Everything is uncertain in this world, except birth, growth, old age, illnesses and death.

Weaknesses and mistakes are not bad things at all. They make us humble and let us learn and improve ourselves in life.

We need to accept our weaknesses with an open heart and learn from our mistakes, and listen to other people’s suggestions to improve ourselves but not to be too sensitive about other people’s criticism and point of view until it affects our self-confidence and it becomes an obstacle for us in the path towards enlightenment and sharing Yoga with others.

Yoga practice is a self-healing and purification process. If we are doing the right practice it is an energetic and cheerful approach. Even though sometimes, during the purification process, lots of negative thoughts and feelings that were hidden deep in the subconscious mind will come up to the surface.

 

We might feel very low energy or feel bad, but it is just a temporary process. We should be careful not to identify ourselves with this negativity, not to generate reactions and let them go eventually.

There will be lots of good and bad feelings and emotions crop up during our regular and intense Yoga practice. As a Yoga teacher, we need to be able to recognize the purification process that we are going through from time to time and we should be able to heal ourselves emotionally, physically and mentally. Then only we can help others and guide others to do self-healing as well.

Sometimes we feel like crying and are depressed. Sometimes we feel angry and violent. Sometimes we feel lustful and full of desires. Sometimes we have very strong craving for certain things. Sometimes we have strong disgust for certain things. Sometimes we feel everything is against our wishes. Anything can come up to the surface to be released and to unblock our energy channels, and to help us evolve spiritually, if we are really sincere and regular in our Yoga practice.

Do not be afraid of the purification process. It is a step for everyone to go through if we want to know the Truth.

Many people stop their practice because they have fear when they encounter an intense purification process. Sometimes the purification process manifests itself not just emotionally but also physically and mentally. We might have pain or sickness in the physical body. Sometimes it manifests in our dreams as well. During this time, it is important to have the guidance of a teacher to explain and to encourage the students to continue practice and guide them how to deal with those difficult times, and support them during the purification process.

After each purification process, we will feel lighter and easier in our practice. We will gain more strength emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually. Everything will become clearer and more understandable for us. We will be able to let go some of the attachments that we couldn’t let go in the past. We will become more confident and calmer. Fear and worries will become less. We will become more energetic and cheerful than before.

Just remember that Yoga practice is purification and detachment. Keep working on these two elements. You will be fine at anytime, anywhere and doing whatever, if you know how to stay detached.

Our mind likes to express itself through judgment, criticism and comparison towards others. Some of the ideas might be constructive for people, but most of the time they are destructive and will pull down other people’s spirit and self-esteem. Most of the time our ego is being jealous or unhappy about other’s performance and ability, and it wants to attack other people with judgment, criticism and comparison.

As Yoga students, when we want to judge or criticize ourselves or others, when we start to compare ourselves with ourselves in the past or in the future, or compare ourselves with others, or compare other people with one another, know that this is not Yoga practice. Keep watching what our mind and the ego want us to do, and then let go the idea of wanting to judge, to criticize and to compare, especially about our teacher. It doesn’t matter if we are more experienced than the teacher, we should respect the teacher and support the teacher who wants to learn and improve, like all of us.

As Yoga teachers, there shouldn’t be any comparison and competition between Yoga teachers or between ourselves and the students. And Yoga classes are not a business that is in competition among different Yoga centers.

 

May we all develop wisdom, compassion and patience.

May all beings be happy.

Who or what can we rely on?

When a person has not attained self-realization yet, he needs a faith or belief to rely on as his guidance in life. Even when a person thinks that he doesn’t need a guidance in life, he still has a certain type of characteristic or personality of his own. These characteristics and personality are in fact influencing him to think, act and speak, and he has certain point of view about himself, his life and the world.

He is being moulded into certain types of behavior and being ”trained” to have certain types of thinking – by the people and all the happenings in the world that he comes in contact with, without him being aware of it. He doesn’t know that actually he is always being affected or influenced by all and everything in the surrounding. This surrounding with all the people and happenings in it, is ever changing without a true characteristic and there is no certainty at all. He will think that he is independent and intelligent enough to have his own ideas and that he is different from other people.

But this is not really true.

We were always being told about many things, teachings, stories, cultures and beliefs by our elders, our school teachers, our friends, our public and social medias, and the leaders in our society, from the moment when we were being born until now. We are full of fears and worries. We are being influenced by all the stories and ideas that was told by all these people. We have certain likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements. We all only want happiness and don’t want unhappiness. We all want to be a special individual and being different from other people. We all are being influenced and manipulated by so many things in the world. But we still think that we are very smart and are better than other people.

Even Buddha said that he is not different from all other living beings and all other living beings are not different from him.

Why did he say this? What did he mean?

It is because when he realized selflessness, he realized that he and all other living beings have one same nature and have no differences at all regardless of whether we know about it or not. And we all have the same needs for the maintenance of life, the same ignorance, the same wisdom, the same anger, the same ego, the same hunger and thirst, the same sadness, the same compassion, the same impermanence, and the same enlightenment. All living beings have the same equal freedom to be happy or sad, to be enlightened or to be ignorant; having similar painful sorrow and suffering; same functioning of the mind, the ego, the intellect and the subconscious mind. And we all have to go through birth, growth, old age, illness and death. No one can avoid any of these impermanence of existence until we realized selflessness.

If a person has no faith or a belief to rely on, he will fall apart when he encounters some difficulties or disappointments in his life. He will be lost in the ocean of lust, greed, disappointment, hurt, anger, ignorance and selfishness.

And so, it is important that we have a faith or belief to rely on. Although it is not a necessity, but it does help us to go through many trials, difficulties and challenges in life.

But how do we choose a faith or belief? And where can we find it? Because there are so many different beliefs in the world, including good practices and evil practices as well. How are we going to be sure that which one is really good for us and will benefit all living beings? Which one will lead us to know the Truth?

”Whatever actions and speech that are bringing peace and harmony to oneself and others as well, are good and are right conducts; and whatever actions and speech that are bringing disharmony and unrest to oneself and others, are not good and are wrong conducts.”

“Whatever actions and speech that are promoting loving kindness, peace and harmony, we should support and promote them. Whatever actions and speech that are promoting hatred, violence and disharmony, we should not support nor promote them.”

This basic phrase from the teachings of the ancient saints and sages should be our initial guideline to look for a correct path in life and a belief to rely on. Although it may not be absolutely the way that we think how it should be under some special circumstances. Because sometimes when a person thinks that his actions and speech are good for himself and others, but actually it’s not. While something which is good for himself and everyone may be being misunderstood that it is bad. All these confusions are deriving from ignorance.

The power of ignorance is so great that we always under estimate it and think that we are very smart and intelligent. Most of the time we are being influenced by our survival instinct, jealousy, desire and lust, but we have no idea about it at all, and we will do things and say things that is coming from the big ego and ignorance which give rise to so much conflicts and unhappiness in ourselves and unto many others.

If we find that we are in competition with somebody, or we are comparing ourselves with somebody, and we want to be better than somebody, or trying to get acknowledgement, recognition, agreement, and praise from others, or feel that we are somehow not good enough, then know that we are under the influence of the ego and ignorance. Beware… always watch the ceaseless changes and the manifestation of ceaseless thoughts in our mind, before they influence us, over power us and control our actions and speech.

When jealousy, anger, hatred, pride, arrogance and selfishness take over us, we cannot see ourselves clearly anymore. Even when we are being told by some others that we are under the influence of jealousy, anger, hatred, pride, arrogance and selfishness, we will become even more irritated and will deny such accusation and continue to be influenced by the ego and ignorance.

This is a common obstacle for everyone in any path of the different types of worldly beliefs, or in Yoga, or in Buddhism.

It is nothing wrong, but we need to be aware of and recognize this obstacle, and correct ourselves, let go and move on.

Never say that we will never be influenced by the ego, the anger, the hatred, the jealousy, the pride, the arrogance and lust, unless we have attained full enlightenment, or the direct self realization towards the truth of Selflessness, Impermanence, Limitation, Conditional, and Non-self. Because all these ideas, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and desires, will keep on troubling us and hindering us from our practice of mind purification that leads towards the realization of selflessness. “They” don’t like that. “They” get very "offensive" and "irritated", or become even more intense and violent, when we want to realize selflessness, because that means they will have to disappear if we realized selflessness. We should always be very watchful for all these elements in us.

Keep practicing detachment whenever the thoughts of anger, hatred, pride, arrogance, jealousy, hurt, greed, despair, sadness, selfishness, possessiveness, and lust come up to the surface of the mind. Learn to detect their presence and learn to let them go instead of suppressing them back into the subconsciousness. Sometimes we will be confused whether we are actually letting go, or we are just suppressing those impurities in us.

If we will be troubled by the similar situations or emotions on and off repeatedly, know that we haven’t let go, but have been suppressing our thoughts and feelings of negativity and impurity.

If the intensity of the negative impure thoughts and feelings is becoming less, and even when the similar situation is happening again, but we will not be troubled by these impurities anymore, then know that we are practicing letting go.

We might need somebody who is wise and honest – a good guardian, or a good teacher, or a good friend to point out the defects or impurities in us, even if they are not perfect. They can help us to realize our faults and make us take a deep look at our own self from time to time through their eyes of wisdom. And they also can uplift us with their compassionate loving kindness. We shall learn all the good qualities from them, but not to pick up anything negative from them and not to criticize anyone when we see some defects/imperfections in other people. No one can be perfect for everyone or can please everyone, unless we are fully enlightened, and are not being conditioned by the world of names and forms. Even Buddha had received criticisms and threats from the people who didn’t understand him, and didn’t like him and/or his teachings, because they felt that their particular belief was being intimidated by Buddha and his realization and teachings that was different from and contradicting their belief.

But we can not totally rely on the people who can uplift us or guide us as well, because they are also under the natural circumstances of uncertainty or impermanence. No one can avoid uncertainty or impermanence as long as there is the existence of this physical body, this life existence, this mind, this ego, this intellect, and being conditioned by all the names and forms.

 

Impermanence is being perceived and acknowledged by the mind as a form of undesirable painful suffering only when the mind is functioning under the presence and influence of the veil of ignorance. Impermanence is not at all a form of suffering to the mind that has transcended impermanent changes upon the absence of the veil of ignorance, upon knowing the truth of Selflessness and Non-self. 

If someone tells us that he or she loves us very much today, but tomorrow he or she might not loves us anymore. If someone tells us that he or she doesn’t love us now, but tomorrow he or she might love us very much. Everything is uncertain. Even a wise person can be deluded sometimes.

Unless we have attained self-realization, and are free from being determined by all sorts of impermanent names and forms. And we are identical with the unconditional peace, or the selfless universal consciousness that is without a beginning and without an ending; beyond birth and death or impermanent changes, that is all existing, all pervading, all wisdom, and all compassion. The selfless universal consciousness that has no qualities, no intention, neither good nor bad, and “that” which is neither this nor that, which also doesn't belong to this or that. It is beyond names and forms, beyond all qualities of good and bad, negative and positive, purity and impurity, existence and non-existence.

If we rely on somebody who has a specific name and form, and who is being limited and conditioned by the quality of that particular name and form; or if we rely on certain beliefs that have such and such conditions and qualities; then we will be easily losing our faith in that person or that belief upon their qualities and policies have changed. Or, we will be very disappointed, confused, and lost, if we found out that there are some imperfections in that person or in that belief. Any person or any belief that is being limited and conditioned by certain qualities of certain names and forms, can never be permanent unchanging and can not be all perfect. We can not find perfection in any human beings or in any beliefs that is created, organized, and supervised by human beings. Because everything is uncertain or impermanent. Even ”this” is also uncertain. Because everything that we perceive and understand through this conditional body, the limited perceptive cognitive intellectual emotional thinking and acting assertive mind, and the senses has a beginning and an ending. The mind of everyone and the condition of every being is ever changing without a certainty.

So, who can we really rely on? Ultimately it is the selfless Self.

No one can see what is going on in our mind, but only our own awareness/consciousness, the one same Self that pervades all and everyone and everything but that also doesn't belong to anyone or anything.

 

And hence, the highest importance of self-reliance and open-mindedness via non blind-believing/blind-faith/blind-following/blind-practicing/blind-propagating, to be performing self-inquiry and attaining self-realization.

We need to find out or to know this Self – which is always here with us, from before the very beginning of life existence and also beyond the end of life existence. It is not our body; not out life; not our thinking mind; not our senses; not our knowledge and learning; not our experiences; not our achievements; not our memories; not our breathing; not our heartbeats; not our energy; not our everyday Yoga practices; not our feelings; and certainly not our ego. It is timeless, nameless, and formless, without qualities, without intentions, without beginning, without ending, without birth, without death, without happiness, without unhappiness, without enjoyment or suffering.

The selfless Self is the one and only reliable and truthful guardian, teacher, or friend that will never leave us, judge us, condemn us, or harm us, even when we are so selfish, deluded, evil, hurtful, and ignorant.

Because it is beyond names and forms, beyond imagination, speech, and words, the selfless Self is not easy to be grasped or recognized by us. But under the teachings of yoga, if we keep on purifying ourselves, purify our thoughts, actions, and speech, develop self control, calmness, and peacefulness, then very soon we will realize this all wise and all compassionate, unlimited, unconditional, intentionless, selfless Self. It is there as it is, when we empty ourselves or the restless egoistic impure modification of the mind, annihilated the ego and egoism; let go of selfishness and possessiveness; let go of all attachments and identifications; eradicated all the lustful desires; let go of the past and the future; and being in the present moment, we will know this Self.

All and everything are the Self. It is not separate from us and will never be separated from us. But we feel the separateness and are separated from it and being ignorant towards it, when there is the idea of 'I', when there are lots of impurities, and there are individual and group identifications from the selfish ego towards the different qualities of names and forms, the physical body, the modifications of the mind, the senses, the actions and the fruit of actions, and all kinds of ties and connections or relationships with all and everything.

Look at nature, the universe, the sun, the earth, the air, the water, and the space…
 

Selflessly and intentionlessly, they accept all living beings and everything, as they are, and allow everyone and everything to be in it, to be on it, to torture it, to utilize it, to consume it, to pollute it, and it doesn’t matter if anyone is being grateful or ungrateful towards their contributions for all and everything to be existing here. They embrace all, treat all equally, and see no differences of good and evil. They constantly give without any expectations of receiving goodness or rewards in return. Our true nature, the Self, which enables our mind to be conscious and aware of ourselves and everything that we perceived through the senses, is the same as all these names and forms or elements of the nature. If we want to be able to know what is this Self, and want to realize it, we need to purify ourselves, eliminating the ego, until we are identical with this selfless nature in all and everything, then we all are no longer any different or separated from the absolute truth of selflessness.

Expand our heart; open our mind; embrace and respect all and everything under different names and forms.

May we all realized the selfless Self, and be free.