Inquire towards the teachings of selflessness

Many minds find that the teachings about selflessness is unreachable for them to reflect upon. That is because there is an 'I' being there trying to prove that this 'I' doesn't exist, as well as trying to look for an non-existing 'I' to make it disappear.

Most minds would interpret selflessness as being unselfish, where there is an individual being identifying itself as "I practice selflessness. I am selfless, or I am unselfish."

Minds that haven't realize selflessness would think that selflessness is a form of practice, where they think and believe that everyone should practice selflessness, or be unselfish.

Selflessness is not a practice. It's what all and everything are.

There's no 'I' existing to be identifying as "I am selfless" or "I am unselfish."

One either realizes or doesn't realize selflessness. One doesn't practice or not practice selflessness.

One doesn't practice selflessness and becoming selfless. One just realizes the essence of selflessness in all and everything. Similarly, one doesn't practice compassion and becoming compassionate. One just realizes the essence of compassion in all and everything.

When the mind performs the practice of eliminating the ego, there's not any individual being of 'I' that exists that needs to be eliminated. It's the delusive idea of 'I' or the ego, the assertive function of the thinking mind that identifying as an individual being, deriving from and empowered by ignorance and egoism, that needs to be eliminated from the thinking mind, that allows the mind to see or realize the truth of itself and all and everything that it perceives, which is selflessness.

The perceptive assertive intellectual thinking mind is the one that is performing the yoga practice.

It's not "I am performing the yoga practice," or "I am eliminating myself," or "I realize that I don't exist."

It's the selfless impermanent function of the thinking perceptive mind that is purifying and removing the veil of ignorance and impurities and corrupted thinking, eliminating the ego and egoism, freeing the modification of the mind from the delusive idea of "I am an individual being existing, perceiving this and that, performing action and enjoying the fruit of action, being peaceful or disturbed, who enjoys or suffers."

The function of the mind is the one that perceives all kinds of names and forms through the senses and experiences this restless worldly life existence that is subject to impermanence and selflessness.

The mind that is functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, where there's an assertive discriminative ego and impure intellect, is the one that perceives, analyzes, judges, discriminates and experiences 'pleasantness and unpleasantness', 'happiness and unhappiness', 'enjoyment and suffering', of all kinds of duality, that perceives all sorts of feelings and emotions, that constantly acts and reacts, that has attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, that inspires and aspires, that perceives disturb, dissatisfaction, disappointment, discontentment, greed, lust, hurt, anger, hatred, offensiveness, pride, shame, guilt, regret, fear and worry.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one who likes and dislikes, agrees and disagrees, wants and doesn't want.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that thinks and doesn't think, that knows and doesn't know, that believes and disbelieves, that acts and doesn't act, that enjoys and suffers.

The function of the mind is the one that is awake and asleep, that is dreaming and in deep sleep.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that feels good and bad, that feels positive and negative, that feels meaningful and meaningless, that feels loved and unloved, that feels calmed and disturbed.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that practices or doesn't practice certain social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice.

The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind is the one that perceives and experiences suffering of disturb, hurt, disappointment, painful sorrow, grief, unhappiness, loneliness, meaninglessness and restlessness. The function of the mind without ignorance, egoism, impurities, and the assertive ego and the discriminative intellect under the veil of ignorance and egoism, doesn't perceive suffering.

The suffering disturbed restless mind is the one that has intense yearning for liberation to be liberated from all these ignorance, egoism, restlessness, impurities and suffering.

The mind is the one that is disciplining, purifying and quieting the modification of the mind.

The mind is the one that is inquiring towards the truth of names and forms, especially towards the truth of itself, to know Thyself.

There's no 'I' being existing to negate a non-existing 'I', which doesn't make any sense to the mind. It's like how can we make something that isn't existing to disappear, because it doesn't exist in the first place.

But, it's possible to inquire and realize selflessness once the mind drops off the idea of 'I' that attached and identified and associated with the modification of the mind, which then allows the thinking mind to stand as a third party witness or observer to witness or observe the modification of the mind or all the thoughts activities in the mind.

Then the mind will start to be able to learn, study, and analyze what is going on in the mind under the purified intellect, being free from egoistic likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements under the influence of any particular worldly social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice to judge anything, to know Thyself, as it is, and realizing the truth of all and everything, as they are, which is selflessness, or 'I'lessness, or egolessness, where there isn't an individual being of 'I' existing in all kinds of names and forms, in all living and non-living objects, including the function and modification of the mind.

Upon seeing the truth of impermanence and selflessness within the modification of the mind, as well as in all the names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses, of all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant, agreeable and disagreeable, desirable and undesirable life experiences, the mind is no longer being determined or disturbed by the modification of the mind, or what it used to think is what it is, or itself, or 'I'. The mind is at peace, unconditionally.

Upon the complete annihilation of the thought current or the modification of the mind, or the annihilation of the thinking mind, there's only Silence, or Samadhi, the original state of selfless birthless deathless timeless consciousness. It's not even "My original self of who I really am." but it's merely the selfless essence of all and everything beyond all the names and forms. It is undetermined, undisturbed, uninfluenced, unchanged and uncontaminated by all the impermanent manifestation of dualities, qualities, names and forms, good and evil, enjoyment and suffering, born out of Maya.

As long as there's traces of ignorant egoistic desire of craving, grasping, clinging and longing, the selfless consciousness keeps reflecting the loop of ceaseless births and deaths manifesting in various impermanent and selfless thought currents, forms and identities, that gives rise to the suffering of restlessness in the mind under the veil of ignorance, where all kinds of names and forms of living or non-living objects exist, change and cease existing under the law of nature, cause and effect, even if the selfless consciousness is uncontaminated and unaffected by all these selfless impermanent modification of the mind.

If there's an identification of 'I', or an idea of 'I', or 'the ego' in the thinking mind identifying as an individual being, existing and identifying with the function or the modification of the mind perceiving all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant experiences of desirable and undesirable names and forms through the senses, attaching onto the mortal physical body, the impermanent life existence of this physical body, all the relationships with all and everything, all kinds of worldly possessions, and all kinds of social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice that born out of ignorance and egoism, then it's impossible for this mind to perform self-inquiry to inquire towards the truth of the mind and everything.

The delusive existence of the identity of 'an individual being' in the thinking mind, is due to ignorance.

The delusive existence of an individual being of 'I' in the mind is nothing but a false identity made out of attachment and identification towards the collection of memory deriving from the function of memory remembering bits of the continuous stream of the ceaseless thoughts current (the modification of the mind.)

The mind purification process to remove impurities, the practice of self-restriction or self-control, the quiet/calm state of the mind, and the elimination of egoism of passion, attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation, is the prerequisite that allows self-inquiry to proceed.

Replacing the 'I' with 'The thinking faculty', or 'The thinking mind'.

It's not "I am inquiring towards the teachings of the truth of selflessness, where 'I' doesn't exist," because the mind will be stuck with "Who is this 'I' that is existing here inquiring about something? How can I say I don't exist?"

It's just 'The selfless thinking faculty of the mind' (the selfless projector and the projector screen itself) selflessly reflecting 'The impermanent restless modification of the mind' (the projected impermanent names and forms), and both 'The selfless thinking faculty of the mind' and 'The impermanent restless modification of the mind' are just part of the impermanent manifestation of 'The ignorant impure perceptive assertive egoistic and intellectual thinking mind' that is powered and influenced by the energy field, and all are impermanent and selfless. There's no 'I' in all these impermanent and selfless names and forms.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

The minds that hold on strongly onto their existing thinking and belief, may find that this teaching is 'disagreeable' and 'wrong', as it contradicts with the thinking and belief in their minds, that is their freedom of thinking, belief, reaction and judgment.

The minds that are confused, but are aware of ignorance in the mind, and are interested in self-inquiry, can take a look at these blog posts, and see if it can provide some reflection for the mind to reflect upon -

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2020/12/be-open-to-inquire-truth-of-worldly.html

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2020/07/self-inquiry-try-contemplate-upon-what.html 

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2019/05/selflessness.html

https://mengfoonglai.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-function-of-memory-and-existence-of.html 

When doubt, confusion, discomfort, disappointment or suffering arise on the path of yoga

Minds that are interested in practicing and realizing yoga, might experience certain discomfort or suffering, disappointment, confusion and doubt from time to time.

There's nothing wrong when the mind experiences great physical/mental/emotional discomfort or suffering, disappointment, or doubt and confusion from time to time due to the intense gross and subtle mind purification process. It doesn't mean that one has not practicing correctly, or one is not heading towards the right direction towards the realization of yoga.

It's whether the minds are endowed with the basic correct understanding towards the modification of the mind, and whether the minds have developed certain degrees of dispassion, non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-comparison and non-expectation, or not, that influencing whether the minds will keep going, or give up, or take a break. There's neither right nor wrong in any approach.

The paths are many, not just the different path of different lineage, but everyone is actually walking their very own path, alone by themselves, as they follow the path of any particular lineage.

All are heading towards yoga, unless the path is not about realizing universal non-discriminative unconditional birthless deathless infinite peace of selflessness, oneness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness.

May it be it's a rather smooth path or a challenging path, a shorter path or a longer path, or even a seemingly infinite restless path that never come to an end, or keep looping on and on, but even so, any path will come to an end, or vanish, upon the annihilation of the mind born out of ignorance, as the Gurus and Buddhas in the past had claimed that anyone can attain liberation, and be free from restlessness, or the loop of restless births and deaths born out of ignorance, as taught in the Scriptures, and hence, the practice is there to lead the aspirants reaching the Self-realization of selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness, upon the annihilation of ignorance.

The smoothness and the length of the path, is very much influenced by the degrees of ignorance, and the process that it takes towards the complete annihilation of ignorance.

Everyone is walking on their own path, alone, as they start walking.

Everyone might or might not cross path with the others at some stage.

Even when one thinks that it is walking on one particular path together with a partner or with a group of many others following the similar path, everyone evolves at their own pace and cause. Some move faster, some move slower, some stop, some take another path, and so on. Even when one thinks that it is carrying another one walking on the path, in one's pace, each will also evolve at their own cause.

Not every disciple of the same Guru of the same lineage will be successfully attain the same realization as the Guru did, or attain the same realization at the same pace and same cause as the Guru did.

No matter how much obstacle, difficulties and challenges that one encounters along the path, and how long the path will take to reach the destination, or how much goodness, joyfulness, thankfulness and meaningfulness that one experiences along the path, whatever happens along the path, it's all subject to impermanence. Everything is still the manifestation of Maya, or ignorance.

If there's passion, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, then the path would appear to be infinite and never reaching the destination.

The higher of the degrees of passion, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, the further the destination appears to be.

The lower of the degrees of passion, attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, the closer the destination appears to be.

And the degrees of those defilement might change from time to time, until all are eliminated and the path comes to an end as one arrives at the destination upon the complete annihilation of ignorance.

The path of yoga is not like a road in this world that has a particular shape and length of fixed mileage or km from where one begins moving towards the destination. This path of yoga is always here, as it is, in the present moment where the mind is and how the state of the mind is. One just keeps walking (practicing) until the destination appears as it is (The realization of the truth of selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness, formlessness, birthlessness, deathlessness.) There isn't a path of any particular shape and length in front of where one is, and there isn't a path of a particular shape and length from where one had started until where one is. It is always in the present where one is and how one is.

There's no specific 'direction' of a specific 'place' to reach yoga. One is not going anywhere of any particular direction to find yoga at any particular place somewhere else on the path of yoga. Yoga is always right here, right now, where the mind is. It's just whether the veil of ignorance is present or absent, that determines whether the mind realizes or doesn't realize. How long one has been walking on the path, and whatever one experiences along the path, doesn't determine the realization or non-realization of yoga, but the moment the veil of ignorance vanishes, yoga appears as it is, and it's never separated from all and everything.

The path manifests as it is as one starts walking (as one starts practicing), the path vanishes as the destination appears (as one attains Self-realization). All kinds of practice vanishes upon the attainment of Self-realization. There is no path being manifested if one doesn't practice or stops practice. The path manifests as it is as one begins practice, or resumes practice.

Inquire the truth of everything, and be free.

Keep practicing.

Alone you have to fly to the Alone. You are born alone. You will go alone. You will take nothing from this world. O man! your social relationships are only temporary. They are only aids in exhausting certain Karmas, nothing but these.

 

你必须独自飞往单独。你独自而来。也将会是独自而去。你并不会从这个世界上带走些什么。人啊！你所有的社会关系都只不过是暂时性而已。它们只是在帮助我们消耗某些因果业报，只不过是这些而已。

  

  - Swami Sivananda, Essence of Vedanta

Everyone evolves and understands at their own pace

There's nothing to be arguing about towards the different understanding from different minds towards life existence and all the teachings and practices that we could be learning from reading, hearing and experiencing. As even what our own mind understands would be changing or evolving from time to time. It's a continuous learning and evolving process until the mind realizes the truth of impermanence and selflessness.

Everyone takes their own time to evolve and understand everything differently through different stages of practice and purification process.

It doesn't mean that we understood wrongly, even though what we understood differently on different stages wasn't completely the truth as it is before we attain the complete realization.

For the minds that have intense yearning to be free from ignorance, to realize the truth of names and forms, it might understand something differently on different stages, as one practice persistently without judgment or expectation as layer and layer of the veil of ignorance and impurities is being removed through the purification process.

It's like the eye sight. When the vision are extremely weak, the eyes are almost blind, the eyes couldn't see anything at all regardless of near and far. 

If we never initiate to improve the vision by getting certain treatment or correction, then we will never see anything at all.

If we are being initiative to improve the vision by getting certain treatment or correction, then the vision can have the opportunity to become stronger after receiving certain treatment or correction. The eyes might start to see certain shape and colour of the object in front of it that are close enough and not too far, although it might not see exactly the shape and colour of the object as it is yet, but at least it sees there's something in front of it with certain shape and colour rather blurry. If one is being contented at this stage, and doesn't continue to receive further treatment or correction to improve the vision further, then it will never see the exact shape and colour of any object, and it doesn't see what is beyond what the limited vision can reach.

If the vision gets to be receiving continuous treatment or correction until the eyesight reaches perfect clear vision, then the eyes might get to see things as clear as it can see, near and far.

During the different stages of treatment and correction, the eyes see the same object differently under different degrees of vision on the different stages, and start to see objects further and further away, until the moment it starts to see the exact shape and colour of the object as it is and can see as far as the vision can reach, upon the vision is being corrected to as perfect as it can be.

We might not see the complete truth in the beginning, but as we practice, we could attain partial understanding towards the modification of the mind, or getting a glimpse of the outline of the function of the mind, through the process of removing the different layers of impurities and calming the thought current, even though it might not be as clear as what we should be seeing when the mind is completely cleared from the veil of ignorance and impurities and restlessness, but that persistent practice, purification and inquiry, allows the mind to keep inquiring towards the truth until the veil of ignorance and impurities and restlessness is completely annihilated.

And hence, there's nothing wrong with all the different understanding throughout the entire prolong process of self-transformation or mind evolution, but at least, there's persistent practice to keep purifying, disciplining and quieting the mind, to free the mind from ignorance, egoism and impurities, until it attains Self-realization, knowing Thyself.

And hence, writing a 'Sadhana' diary can also help the yoga practitioners to learn about the modification and evolution of one's mind as they practice. It's not about attaching towards the past or towards one's practice and the fruit of practice, but, it allows the mind to learn from itself by observing and studying the conditioned behavior pattern of the impure egoistic modification of the mind and through attaining all kinds of partial incomplete understanding from different stages.

The mind would see that all the partial incomplete understanding in the past is actually building up the path and leading the mind towards complete realization. There isn't anything bad or wrong in those partial incomplete understanding at all. More importantly, the continuous practice of non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-comparison and non-expectation will free the mind from the great obstacle of pride and false contentment that hinders most minds from continuing evolve towards the realization of selflessness, oneness, non-separateness, attributelessness, namelessness and formlessness.

It's like seeing just the shadow of an object allows the mind to be aware of the presence of an object that is unknown to it, as it couldn't see the object directly yet due to some obstacle, but the mind will continue to strive to remove or go beyond the obstacle to see the object as it is, and not just seeing the shadow of the object. Most minds can't see anything due to the huge obstacle of deep ignorance, and are not initiated to make an effort to find out what is behind the obstacle, or to know the unknown, and even being fearful towards what is behind the obstacle, or knowing the unknown.

Without blind-believing, blind-following, blind-practicing, or blind-propagating any teachings and practice, but attaining direct experience and realization through inquiry towards the truth of everything, including all the teachings and practice of Yoga or Buddhism.

Be free.

Disciplining the mind is stern stuff

"One must try to get more insults. Even if people think that he is a good man, he should try to make them feel that he is a rogue and thus get rid of their love for him. The whole world should oppose him. Then only he will prosper. The whole world should desert him and kick him aside. No earthly happiness can bring true realization. All should hate him. Then only his soul will be disciplined. There should be no help from the world of the mortals."

"我们必须尝试获取更多的侮辱。即使是所有的人都认为他是一个好人，然而，他应该尽量让他们觉得他是一个流氓。那么，就可以摆脱他们，把他们对他的爱赶走。全世界的人都应该反对他。只有那样，他才会持续蓬勃发展。全世界的人都应该抛弃他，并把他踢到一旁。人世间任何的快乐并不可以带来真正的醒悟。所有的人应该讨厌他。只有那样，他的意识将会受到严肃的训练。他不应该从人世间得到任何的帮助。"

- Swami Sivananda, Essence of Vedanta

Nowadays, many people think and believe that they love yoga and are practicing and teaching yoga doing many different styles of yoga and attained many different types of yoga certificates affiliated to certain yoga alliance, yoga organization and yoga association, and call themselves 'yogi'. Some even 'invent' their own brand of 'xxx' yoga, and trademark that as their new invention of 'yoga'.

But when come to the practice of dispassion and renunciation, seclusion and solitude, most of the 'yoga enthusiasts' will shake their head, "Nope, that is not the yoga that I know or want to practice. I don't need to renounce the world. I love life. I love people. I love being passionate. I want to be connected with as many people as possible and I am passionate towards creating a loving community in the world that care for one another passionately. To me, the saddest thing in the world is there's not enough love and connection between people in the world. Many people are suffering because they are not getting enough love through connection with other people. People need love. I want to give love to the people and connecting everyone with love. I feel happy when I can make other people happy. That is the most meaningful thing to me and in my life. For me, this is the love sharing yoga that I know that I want to practice and teach."

That's their freedom.

For those who truly want to practice yoga for disciplining the mind, they need to be endowed with at least certain degrees of wisdom to be aware of ignorance and egoism even before performing any so called 'yoga practice' that serves as a tool to purify and quiet the mind to prepare the mind for self-inquiry and meditation, to attain self-realization, to be free from ignorance and the suffering deriving from ignorance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inquire the truth of everything.

What humans can learn from the pandemic from the point of yoga

If human beings want, we all can learn something important for humanity from the pandemic.

Those who reluctant to be open and learn, and just want to live inside the comfort zone that they built out of a particular social/cultural/religious/ethnical thinking, belief, values and practice, nobody can force them.

Unless one has developed immunity for the virus, or one is completely isolated from all the existing virus carriers in the world, or one is being void of coming in contact with the virus directly or indirectly, any human beings regardless of possessing the different qualities of names and forms of any particular type of nationality, ethnicity, culture, race, creed, sect, language, community, society, social status, financial status, health status, physical and mental condition/ability/disability, profession, education, knowledge, gender, age, sexual orientation, appearance, thinking, belief/disbelief, religion, lifestyle, food consumption, intelligence, political point of view, behavior, conduct, contribution, personality, talent, skill, achievement, and so on, can be contracting the virus, if they haven't developed the respective immunity, and are coming in contact with the virus or one of the virus carriers, whether directly or indirectly.

The virus doesn't discriminate any quality of names and forms.

The virus doesn't pick who that it infects, or not.

Anything that relates to nature doesn't discriminate anyone or anything, regardless of whether human beings believe or disbelieve in 'God existence', or have any particular cultural, spiritual or religious belief and practice, or not, and whether people are being selfish or unselfish and behaving nicely or badly.

'Non-discrimination' is the essence of nature. It's the nature of the universe. The sun, the space, the earth, the water and the air/wind doesn't discriminate. All and everything exist in the universe being supported by all these selfless non-discriminative elements. It's a simple but upmost important truth of all and everything that exist in the universe.

But, somehow there are so much 'discrimination' of this and that exist in the human's world, under the name of different type of 'country', 'nationality', 'politic', 'constitution law and orders', 'all kinds of rights authorization', 'community', 'society', 'gender', 'age', 'sexual orientation', 'ethnicity', 'culture', 'religion', 'spirituality', 'class', 'creed', 'sect', 'tittle', 'status', 'ability/disability', 'contribution', 'achievement', 'food consumption', 'profession', 'education', 'talent', and so on.

'Discrimination' of any kind is nothing but the by-products of ignorance and egoism.

Any so called 'belief', 'teachings', 'values', 'class', 'creed', 'sect', 'title', 'status' and 'law and orders' that 'discriminate' this and that/who and who, are all creations deriving from human beings under the influence of ignorance and egoism, including those who think and believe that they are somewhat superior, educated, knowledgeable, righteous, good, loving, sympathetic, empathetic, ethical and moral, but are not free from ignorance and egoism. As those who are free from ignorance and egoism are void of such identifications, even if these identifications with such names and forms are being recognized as the 'positive' and 'good' qualities by most human beings.

'Discrimination' shouldn't exist at all, unfortunately, the world is full of human beings under the influence of ignorance and egoism.

Some people would argue about 'financial/title status' makes a difference in the pandemic, as the wealthy and powerful ones will get the 'vaccination' in priority than the others who are not 'wealthy' or 'powerful'. But, one must understand that such discrimination and prejudice is also a product of ignorance and egoism. If there's no 'vaccine' available, then nobody is going to be 'immunized' against the virus, regardless of someone is being wealthy and powerful, or not. Before vaccine is available, anyone can try one's best not to come in contact with the virus, if they want. That is universally non-discriminative.

Some people believe that if everyone is financially secured equally under good economy, then there will be no crime, corruption, racism or discrimination in the world. The history has been teaching us that even if everyone on earth is financially secured equally under good economy, there will still be crime, corruption, racism and discrimination coming from survival instinct and greed as well as prideful egoistic attachment and identification towards any particular social/ethnic/cultural/religious/spiritual/political thinking, belief, values and practice, deriving from ignorance.

One of the important role to curb the pandemic is to maintain strict social and physical distancing. This pandemic can also teach human beings, including mental health professionals, yoga enthusiasts and all those sympathetic/empathetic loving kindhearted people who believe that human beings will be sick and die if without any social and physical contact with other human beings, that actually human beings might be getting sick and die because of social and physical contact more than void of social and physical contact at this time being.

Those who feel offended by this realization learning from the pandemic are free to feel and react the way that they want. There's nothing wrong also if people refuse to maintain social and physical distancing due to their belief about human beings cannot live without social and physical contact with other human beings especially when the pandemic is still going strong in the world before the vaccine is available to everyone, which not only risking their own health but also all the others in the community, directly or indirectly.

It's true that some people are suffering mentally and emotionally due to social and physical distancing for a prolonged period of time, but it's not because of void of social and physical contact with other human beings, but it's due to the ignorant egoistic attachment, craving and clinging towards the social and physical contact with other human beings that is why the minds are in suffering mentally and emotionally if the social and physical contact is not available for some reasons. Some people who are void of attachment, craving and clinging towards social and physical contact with other human beings, who are also maintaining social and physical distancing with other human beings for a prolonged period of time, they don't suffer mentally or emotionally.

Those who practice yoga, especially those who teach yoga should have this very simple understanding, unfortunately, even some yoga teachers might not understand this and refuse to practice social and physical distancing, and they actively protest against 'the practice of social distancing' during this time being for the sake of curbing the pandemic.

None can remove the ignorance of others.

Another thing that yoga practitioners can learn from the prolonged pandemic, is the practical teaching and practice of - "Accepting the reality as it is, not necessarily is the way that we would like it to be; understanding that all and everything is impermanent and selfless, where life is not in the control of 'I' of how 'I' would like it to be; be equipped with the quality of patience, forbearance, tolerance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation to be able to confront with any unforeseen challenges, regardless of success or failure; living in the present as it is, allowing life to be what it is, and it is constantly changing under the law of nature, cause and effect; appreciating everything without attachment, craving or aversion, and just do our best in what is possible at the present moment in life without attachment or expectation towards the fruit of our actions, and it's okay if certain things are not possible in the present moment; and it's okay if we choose to do nothing and let it be, just be in the moment," is much needed in situation like this. Where one doesn't really need to maintain 'positive thinking' and 'optimistic' anticipating that everything will be 'good' the way that we would like it to be. It's okay sometimes things are not okay. One doesn't need to get disappointed or frustrated when things are not being the way that one would like it to be. And there's nothing wrong if one feels disappointed and frustrated, but with understanding that even this disappointment and frustration is impermanent.

While different people have their own different ways of coping with this situation, that's their freedom.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Community or seclusion and solitude?

If the members of a community are free from ignorance and egoism, and hence, everyone is independent mentally and emotionally, free from the influence of passion, worldly social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice, egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, and expectation, while performing necessary selfless actions that benefit oneself and other beings within and outside the community, unconditionally and non-discriminatively, without being determined by the actions and the fruit of actions, without being disturbed by the ignorance and the consequence of ignorance of the others in the world, but without any attachment and expectation, everyone might even help the others who are still under the influence of ignorance and egoism to develop awareness to free their minds from ignorance and egoism, then there's no difference between being part of a community and being in seclusion and solitude.

If the members of a community or even within a family are very much under the influence of ignorance and egoism, but oneself has the correct understanding about the teachings and practice of yoga, where one has attained mental and emotional independence, being free from the influence of passion; worldly social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice; egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, and expectation, while performing necessary selfless actions that benefit oneself and other beings within and outside the community or family, unconditionally and non-discriminatively, where oneself is not being determined by the actions and the fruit of actions, without being disturbed by the ignorance and the consequence of ignorance of the others in the world or in the family, not just that oneself doesn't empower the ignorance and egoism in oneself and other beings under the influence of the ignorance and egoism of the others in the community or family, but without any attachment and expectation, one might even help the others to develop awareness to free their minds from ignorance and egoism, then there's no difference between living in a community or family and being in seclusion and solitude.

If the members of a community or in the family are under the influence of ignorance and egoism, and oneself has not developed the correct understanding about the teachings and practice of yoga, where one has not attained mental and emotional independence, is still under the influence of passion; worldly social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice; egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, and expectation; being determined very much by the actions and the fruit of actions; being influenced, determined and disturbed by the ignorance and the consequence of ignorance of the others in the world or in the family, not just that oneself couldn't help oneself and/or other beings to be free from ignorance and egoism, but the ignorance and egoism in oneself is being empowered by the ignorance and egoism of the community, then it's better for the yoga practitioner to be in seclusion and solitude, staying away from all those ignorant egoistic influence and distraction, to work diligently to free one's mind from ignorance and egoism.

If being in seclusion and solitude without freeing the mind from ignorance and egoism, without realizing selflessness and unconditional peace, the mind is still very much being over-powered by passion; worldly social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, belief, values and practice; egoistic attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation, and hence, the mind is being disturbed and determined by the modification of the mind, the impermanent changes, the state of the mind, the condition of the physical body, the perceived names and forms through the senses, the life experiences, the worldly relationships and connections, success and failure, pleasantness and unpleasantness, praise and condemn, the physical and mental achievement and non-achievement, and/or the condition and situation in the world or in the family, then it doesn't serve the purpose of being in seclusion and solitude.

If oneself has awareness towards oneself is still under the influence of ignorance and egoism, and trying one's best to free one's mind from ignorance and egoism, while being aware of the ignorance and egoism in other beings, but one doesn't empower or encourage the ignorance and egoism in other beings, then even though oneself is not free from ignorance and egoism yet, and oneself couldn't help other beings to develop awareness to free their minds from ignorance and egoism, but that is already what the practice is about.

If oneself has no awareness towards oneself is under the influence of ignorance and egoism, especially those who identified themselves as 'yoga teacher' who want to teach yoga or are teaching yoga to other people, and whether wittingly or unwittingly, oneself is constantly empowering the ignorance and egoism in oneself and other beings in the community while thinking and believing that oneself is practicing and/or teaching yoga, then that is not what the practice is about. Though there's nothing wrong with that, as most people under the influence of ignorance are being ignorant towards the ignorance in themselves, and everyone takes their own time and pace to evolve. The prideful minds under the influence of ignorance and egoism would feel very belittled, insulted, intimidated or offended when being advised to see the ignorance and egoism in themselves. That's why it has to come from self-awareness to be aware of ignorance and egoism in oneself, then only one would be initiated to do something about it.

It doesn't matter if oneself still haven't realized the difference between "Passionate egoistic sympathetic/empathetic loving kindness that empowers ignorance and egoism in the world" and "Selfless compassion that is free from ignorance and egoism, that helps other beings to be free from ignorance and egoism."

Just keep practicing.

Satsanga (wise selfless dispassionate company) is great if it's available. Asanga (without any company) is better than Kutsanga (ignorant egoistic passionate company). There's no difference between Satsanga, Asanga and Kutsanga for those who are free from ignorance and egoism.

Inquire the truth of everything.

All are free in the beginning for being existing in this world as one is, until...

This freedom being talked about here is not what most civilized human beings would like to hear or have.

It's not directly about the freedom of being free from ignorance and egoism that is widely mentioned in the teachings of yoga and Buddhism, but it's the universal non-discriminative freedom of existence that was being 'stolen' by a so called 'civilized society' under the control and regulation of a community supported authorization which created by human beings out of survival instinct under the function of ignorance and egoism, to control and regulate the world to be in certain way that they prefer and desire.

Those who want to live an easier 'civilized' way of life, to be 'protected' and 'authorized' by an authority/authorization that they support, to enjoy certain 'legal rights' that they want and agree with, while to control, oppress, punish and prosecute some others that they don't welcome and don't agree with under certain 'legal rights', many human beings would rather give up the 'universal non-discriminative freedom of existence', so that they themselves and the world that they lived in will be 'controlled' and 'regulated' by an authority to be and not to be in certain way based on their agreements and disagreements towards a world that they think how it should be, the way that they like it to be.

More importantly, they also want all the others who are different from them, who live life in the way that appears to be contradicting with the ideal world that they prefer and desire, to be put under the 'control' and 'regulation' of the authority/authorization that operates under their support, that is being given the power to control, oppress, punish and prosecute anyone who doesn't comply with a world that they prefer and desire.

This is 'civilization'. 

Most people would prefer to sacrifice/give up/abandon 'the root freedom of existence as one is' in order to enjoy a sort of less challenging easier community supported life that built on support among a like-minded community, and the bigger their community the better and more powerful they are, in order to be 'controlling' the world and 'achieving' a world that they desire, even though the world doesn't belong to anyone, any community, any country, or any vision at all.

No matter how good and right that these human beings think and believe that they are, no one/no community/no country/no authorization should claim ownership towards the world, possess the world to be theirs, and control the world to be and not to be in certain way that they prefer and desire. The world is not even 'our world', but somehow, out of ignorance and egoism, all and everyone wants to claim the world to be 'my world' for an individual, or 'our world' for a community.

Many 'civilized' human beings justify, "We need to have control over the world, or else the world will be ruined by those who damage the world in certain way. We need to protect the world from damages." In fact, the world is fine as it is being run by the law of nature, and doesn't need anyone claiming ownership and authorization over it to be protecting it from anything, that doesn't really help the world to be a better place but there is so much suffering existing everywhere due to corruption, discrimination, oppression, war and violence due to the corrupted authorization run by corrupted human beings who think they are protecting and doing something great for the world, but actually it's all about making the world to be the 'ideal' way that they prefer and desire. But, nobody sees it that way.

The world will be balanced by the law of nature once in a while, by itself. But ignorance doesn't allow the human minds to accept the world as it is, but passionate human beings who think they love the world very much, they want to 'control' and 'protect' the world to be in certain way.

This 'freedom of existence as one is' disappeared after so called 'civilization' took place where a group of human beings started to gather their own community and seize possession and authorization over a particular land and space in the world, and formed a community supported authority over all and everything by writing a set of constitution laws to give or not giving certain rights to this and that, based on their likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, desire and don't desire, towards achieving a society or a world that is the way that they prefer and desire.

All are free in the beginning even though most human minds might not be free from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance, but everyone must learn how to tackle and endure many kind of difficulties in order to survive in this world independently as much as possible, without the need of requesting/attaining different types of so called 'legal rights' for being existing and surviving in this world that doesn't belong to anyone, any community, any ethnicity, any culture, any belief, any religion, or any country, but out of ignorance and egoism, all and every different individual, community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion or country in the world want to claim ownership over the world and want to make the world to be the way that they prefer and desire, by 'control', 'oppress', 'discriminate' and 'prosecute' anyone or anything that are sort of 'hindering' them to achieve a world that they prefer and desire based on the self-interest of protecting and empowering their particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, country and vision of an ideal world.

Life is definitely harder, but all are free to be existing and surviving in this world as they are, free from being bound by any so called 'civilized authorization' that is not any different from 'legal gangsterism' that were being given so much power to 'control', 'oppress', 'discriminate' and 'prosecute' all and everyone under the name of upholding 'the law and order of a constitution', especially if it's an authorization that is run by those who are functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, that have prideful attachment and identification towards their particular community, ethnicity, culture, religion, nationality or country, that only prioritize on 'protecting' and 'empowering' their particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, nationality or country, and would perceive hostility and intimidation by anything that is contradicting with their particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, nationality or country.

Out of survival instinct deriving from ignorance and egoism, human beings gather power by forming a group of community run by an authorization to 'control' and 'regulate' the activity of that community as well as to provide certain 'protection' for that community from any hostility and intimidation from other communities.

Human beings who enjoy certain privilege, rights and protection from particular authorization to be having an easier comfortable less challenging life, who don't like to be facing all kinds of challenge independently, who rather be 'protected' and 'supported' by a community controlled and regulated by an authorization, would think and believe that such civilization is good for humanity, and would rather give up their initial freedom for being existing in this world and be living under the 'control' and 'regulation' of an authorization. But then, when things start to become not exactly what they like, they want to complain and protest, and would damage so many things violently out of anger and dissatisfaction in the process of 'complaining' and 'protesting' towards an authorization that they had been supported in order to 'control' and 'regulate' the world to be the way that they prefer and desire, but turns out to be not really exactly what they wanted.

The history had taught us that the world didn't become a better place but becoming worst under the existence of such 'legal gangsterism' run by an authorization comprising human beings functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, and being supported and empowered by a group of community functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, even though certain people get to enjoy a higher standard of living, but there are more and more people are struggling to make a living in life, even though there are so called 'control' and 'regulation' coming from the many different authority/authorization everywhere in the world.

Civilized human beings thought of having an authority of government to 'look after' their welfare and 'protect' them from being bullied, threatened or hurt by intruders or outsiders and wrongfulness, but what if the people themselves are being bullied, threatened and hurt by the authority of a failed government that is run by human beings that are corrupted in many ways?

All are ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Freedom of existence is tough, that's why most people wouldn't like it. Human beings are being pampered to be dependent and reluctant to be independent, even if independence is being given to them, right now.

The saints and sages renounce(d) the world for very good reason, even though it's tough.

Inquire the truth of everything.

How education, knowledge and intelligence can help the world to be a better or worst place?

There is no doubt that education, knowledge and intelligence can allow human beings to be creative and perform many actions in the world. But whether those actions being performed are benefiting or damaging the world in many ways, are very much influenced by whether the education and knowledge that human beings acquired from different sources are the true education and correct knowledge, or not, as well as whether the intelligence are being utilized in the way that benefit all and everyone non-discriminatively and universally, or not.

If the minds that are intelligent and be inspired to perform many actions in the world under the influence of certain education and knowledge that they acquired from particular sources that are not necessarily aiming at empowering the unselfish non-discriminative universal welfare, peace and harmony in the world of diversity, but more towards the selfish empowerment of a particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, and etc, then those actions being performed out of those education, knowledge and intelligence are not going to benefit but will be damaging the welfare, peace and harmony in the world of diversity, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Actions that are being performed out of intelligence and creativity utilizing the acquired education and knowledge that are free from the influence of ignorant egoistic pride and passion towards a particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, and etc, can truly promote the universal welfare, peace and harmony in the world of diversity, unselfishly and non-discriminatively, whether wittingly or unwittingly.

It's everyone's freedom whether they are only interested in empowering their own particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, and etc, and enjoying their acquired 'prosperity' that won't last long, as they didn't look after the universal welfare, peace and harmony in the world, but only performing actions that aim at protecting and empowering the self-interest of a particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, and etc, or, there are human beings understand about the importance of looking after the universal welfare, peace and harmony in the world, unselfishly and non-discriminatively, and understand about the importance of the annihilation of ignorance and egoism in all and everyone in the world of diversity in order to look after the universal welfare, peace and harmony in the world.

If people truly want to enjoy 'prosperity' and 'stability' that can last long for them and their next generations, the government of all countries need to be free from the influence of any particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, and etc, where the government policy doesn't prioritize/emphasize on protecting and empowering a particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, and etc, but looking after the welfare, peace and harmony of all and everyone in the different countries of the world, universally, unselfishly and non-discriminatively.

If all the countries in the world only looking forward to be protecting and empowering their own respective nation, or the countries of diversity only looking forward to be protecting and empowering a particular community, ethnicity, culture, belief, religion or spirituality within its country, then the condition and situation in the world or in any particular country of diversity won't get any better even though many 'good and kind' people trying to perform many actions to 'save' the world or their country from all kinds of damage deriving from ignorance and egoism.

It's a very simple understanding towards achieving world peace or even peace within a country, not just creating 'a bubble of temporary peace' that come from discrimination, oppression and control that will burst sooner or later. Unfortunately, the world is full of minds that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism that only interested in protecting and empowering their own self-interest.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Annihilating pride and arrogance vs encouraging pride and arrogance

Most teachings from the many different social/cultural/religious belief and practice talk mainly about the propagation and attainment of 'peace' and 'harmony'.

If the practitioners or followers of any particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice is being educated and encouraged to have pride and arrogance, to be proud and arrogant towards their particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice, then naturally, there will be more conflict, unrest, anger, hatred and violence, and less peace and harmony in the world, due to the prideful and arrogant minds are easily being offended by many things that they don't like and disagree with, deriving from the pride and arrogance in themselves, and not because there are many things are being offensive towards any particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice. It doesn't really serve the main purpose of any particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice about propagating and attaining 'peace' and 'harmony' in oneself and in the world, when the practitioners or followers constantly and easily feel being offended by many things that are being different from or contradicting with their particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice that they take pride in, but instead, it's promoting conflict, unrest, anger, hatred and violence in oneself and in the world.

If the practitioners or followers of any particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice is free from pride and arrogance towards their particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice, then naturally, there will be less beings in the world who would feel offended, disrespected and insulted easily by many things that are different from and contradicted with their particular social/cultural/religious teaching, belief and practice, and hence, the world will have less conflict, unrest, anger, hatred and violence, and will have more peace and harmony.

Unfortunately, regardless of the many different types of educational/social/cultural/religious background, many people are being brought up in the way of developing pride and arrogance, to be proud of themselves, or their family, or their ethnicity and community, or their culture and religion, or their nationality and country. And hence, it's common that people are easily being offended by many things that they don't like and disagree with.

"I'm so proud of you!"

"You should be proud of yourself!"

"Be proud of being part of this family, culture, ethnicity, community, religion, nationality and country."

"Defend your pride. Defend your family, culture, ethnicity, community, religion, nationality and country."

"You need to be someone and do something that would make yourself and your family, community and country be proud of!"

This is the common belief and practice among many different ethnicities, cultures, religions and nations, in different families, communities and countries, at home, at school, at work place and in all kinds of social/cultural/religious/community centre, where people aren't aware of it's the main reason why there are many people easily feel offended and would behave violently towards other beings and things that they feel being offended by, out of their own pride and arrogance, deriving from ignorance and egoism. Even many yoga teachers also teaching their yoga students in the yoga class in such way to encourage the development of pride and arrogance in the students, thinking of it's the right and effective way to boost or enhance self-esteem, self-worth and the sense of confidence and meaningfulness, in order to counter low self-esteem, low self-worth, low confidence and the sense of meaninglessness. But instead, it's ruin the minds and empowering ignorance and egoism in the world.

If all the kind human beings who have a little bit of awareness and truly want to promote peace and harmony in the world, then all the parents or caretakers, and different kinds of leader, influencer, educator and teacher in the world must let go of taking pride in themselves for being part of a particular family, culture, ethnicity, community, religion, spirituality, nationality, country, or even achievement and contribution, and stop educating or encouraging everyone to also take pride in certain names and forms.

The world doesn't need pride and arrogance, and would be a much better place without unnecessary offensiveness/defensiveness deriving from pride and arrogance towards certain names and forms that the mind identifying with. It would be best if all minds are free from any identification with any names and forms that generates all kinds of separateness and discrimination among human beings. But that's unlikely to happen unless all the parents, caretakers, leaders, influencers, educators and teachers start to really propagate peace and harmony in the world, by stop taking pride in anything. Don't tell the people that they need to love and take pride in their respective family, culture, ethnicity, community, religion, nationality and country, but tell the people to love all and everything unconditionally, non-discriminatively, as they are, without the need of pride and arrogance towards their particular identification with certain names and forms.

That's why the importance of non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment and non-expectation to free the mind from ignorance and egoism for anyone who truly want to realize unconditional peace, and to promote unconditional non-discriminative loving kindness and peace in the world, regardless of the many different social/cultural/ethnic/educational/religious/nationality/country background.

If a country of diversity wants to curb unrest and conflict under the terms of 'offensiveness', 'disrespectfulness' and 'insult', it's not about trying to 'pamper' and 'protect' those prideful minds that are closed minded, highly defensive and super sensitive towards everything and easily be offended by many things that they perceive, think and believe as offensiveness/disrespectfulness/insult towards all the names and forms of different identities that they identifying with as themselves, or who they are, by telling other people to not doing or saying anything that these prideful defensive sensitive closed minds perceive, think and believe as something 'offensive', 'disrespectful' and 'insult', but, it's to educate these prideful defensive sensitive closed minds that live in anger, hatred and violence all the time, to let go of petite-mindedness, pride, arrogance, defensiveness, sensitivity, anger, hatred and violence, and train them to be more open, tolerant, wise and compassionate. Then only the country will improve and move forward in all aspects, not just within the country, but also internationally. Or else, the stability and welfare of the country will be impacted greatly by the majority of the population being easily 'offended' by many things that aren't really 'offensive' but are being perceived by them as something 'offensive' due to petite-mindedness, pride, arrogance, defensiveness and sensitivity.

By 'legally' oppressing and prosecuting those who are somehow being 'seen' as the ones who do or say something that those closed minded prideful defensive sensitive minds perceive, think and believe as something 'offensive', 'disrespectful' and 'insult' to them or their identity of a particular society/ethnicity/religion/spirituality/community, won't help the country to become more peaceful and harmony, but only planting a 'timed bomb' that will explode anytime and destroy the country in many ways.

Those who are open minded, tolerant, wise and compassionate, being free from pride and arrogance, they won't be 'offended', 'disrespected' or 'insulted' by any names and forms. Without being disturbed or determined by it, but just being aware of all those 'unpleasant' names and forms are nothing but ignorant egoistic actions and reactions of the minds out of ignorance and egoism. These wise and compassionate minds are the ones who can help the country to improve and move forward in all aspects, without discrimination, racism and prejudice.

A country that has achieved 'the state of independence' but the majority of the population are not free from ignorance and egoism, is not independent at all. It's worst when a country is run by corrupted minds that only interested in gaining power that help them to achieve their personal agenda and desire by keeping the majority of the population to be ignorant and egoistic, so that they can keep in power by manipulating the easy manipulated ignorant egoistic minds. The stability and welfare of the country in the long run is not in their priority at all, but instead, they 'encourage' separateness, disharmony, instability, fear, anger and hatred among the people which can 'help' them to keep in power and gain personal benefit as much as possible with the power. This is what so called democracy is about. Meanwhile those who want to do something right to achieve peace and harmony in the society that benefit all and everyone would be oppressed and prosecuted legally by the so called 'law and order'.

All the Gurus and Buddhas in the past had given great advice about inquiring the truth of everything, and stay away from politics, politicians, and politically influenced advertisements and newspaper reading.

Those who don't want peace and aren't interested to promote peace in the world, but only want to promote the sense of pride and meaningfulness the way that they like it to be, can continue to be proud and arrogant, as well as educating/encouraging their next generation to also be proud and arrogant about themselves and everything that they want to be identifying with, so that they and their next generation will constantly feel offended by many things that they perceive, think and believe as offensive towards themselves, their family, their ethnicity, their culture, their community, their religion, their nationality, their country, and their achievement and contribution that they take pride in.

Inquire the truth of everything.

Void of ignorance and egoism vs controlled by fear towards God, punishment or hell

If the mind is wise and compassionate being free from ignorance and egoism, then this mind won't be performing actions and generating reactions that would induce harmful consequences and disharmony in oneself and/or others, without the need of 'self-control' or 'controlled by others' or 'fear towards God, or punishment, or hell'. There's even needless of 'self-awareness' or 'self-control' to 'restrict' one's behavior to be or not to be in certain way.

If the mind is not free from ignorance and egoism, it's void of wisdom and compassion, then even though there are many teachings from different social/cultural/religious belief and practice that emphasize on 'fear towards God', or 'fear towards law and punishment', or 'fear towards hell', in order to 'control' people's behavior to be and not to be in certain way, it won't and doesn't stop the mind from performing actions and generating reactions that would induce harmful consequences and disharmony in oneself and/or others out of ignorance and egoism.

Human's behavior cannot be under 'controlled' by 'fear', 'law', and 'punishment'.

The world would never become a better place if people think and believe that there's a need to 'control' people's behavior to be or not to be in certain way by implementing 'control' through 'fear', 'law' and 'punishment'. The history has been teaching human beings that 'fear', 'law' and 'punishment' didn't and don't work. Unfortunately, most human beings are still under the influence of ignorance very much.

Even if there is self-awareness and self-control in oneself to be restricting oneself from performing actions and generating reactions that would induce harmful consequences and disharmony in oneself and/or others, it is not because of 'fear towards God, law and punishment, or hell'. If there's 'fear of something' to motivate or demotivate oneself from performing or not performing certain actions, this mind will never be free from all kinds of suffering deriving from ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Why does anyone 'need' to be fearful towards a 'God existence' that is 'supposedly' almighty, that represents unconditional non-discriminative loving kindness, unless that 'God existence' is not almighty as it is not unconditional and non-discriminative loving kindness at all, but only full of condition, discrimination, anger, hatred and violence?

While the teachings of yoga and Buddhism is about be free from fear to realize fearlessness through the annihilation of ignorance and egoism, and realizing selflessness, wisdom and compassion.

It's everyone's freedom whether they want a 'better' world under the 'control' by fear, anger, hatred and violence, or they want a 'better' world that is free from fear, anger, hatred and violence.

Most social/cultural/religious belief and practice talk about 'peace', but how can peace be present or available when there's so much compulsory 'fear'?

Inquire the truth of everything.

The world is occupied and run by humans with corrupted thinking and belief

People are unhappy about many things in their respective country.

People are being bullied and hurt by discrimination, racism and prejudice.

People are being not free and being oppressed in many ways under the 'control' of certain authority and constitution.

The problem is not the people who are aware of many things aren't 'right'.

The problem is the world being occupied and run by humans with corrupted thinking and belief who formed and supported the authority and constitution that 'threaten', 'discriminate' and 'oppress' the people 'legally' in many ways.

A 'democratic' government is supposed to be elected by the diverse people to 'serve' the people without discrimination, free from the influence of any particular ethnicity/culture/religion. But unfortunately, in some countries, the government is sort of being 'elected' by the 'manipulated' people that 'threaten/discriminate/oppress' the people in many ways under the influence of a particular ethnicity, culture, religion belief and practice.

Which is worst - Being discriminated 'legally' because of one's particular ethnicity and free choice of thinking and belief and practice, or, being 'forced' into particular thinking and belief and practice by birth, and one will be 'persecuted by law' for renouncing that particular thinking and belief and practice that was being 'forced' to 'inherit' by birth? Both conditions shouldn't be existing, but somehow, it exists in some countries that is so called 'democratic'.

One is still be able to have the freedom of thinking and belief and way of life, to be having a self-chosen religious belief and practice, or not having any particular religious belief and practice, even though one is being discriminated 'legally' for not being part of a particular 'ethnicity' and 'religious belief and practice' that 'influencing' the government policy in many ways. The other one is without a choice at all of having a particular religious belief and practice that was being 'forced' to 'inherit' by birth, and constantly being 'watched' by the many 'don't know who' in the community, and be 'punished by law legally' for wanting to be 'free'.

A true government that 'serves' the people, and the government policy, must be free from the influence of any particular ethnicity, culture, or religion.

This world is neither good nor bad. It's the humans with corrupted thinking and belief under the influence of ignorance and egoism who 'self claimed' or 'community supported' enforcing possession and authorization under specific ethnicity and religion over certain areas on earth that is 'supposedly' be shared among all beings without separation of borders and countries, and/or ethnicity, thinking and belief.

All is impermanent. Dhamma will also vanish, not to say, the world that is occupied and run by humans with corrupted thinking and belief under the influence of ignorance and egoism.

Positive thinking and optimism and hopes cannot undo/stop all the past and continuous damages deriving from ignorance and egoism, and doesn't remove the ignorance and egoism in oneself, not to say, in any other beings.

One can only look after one's practice to free one's mind from ignorance and egoism, and be free from being determined by the ignorance and the consequences of ignorance of others.

Free the mind from craving towards love, acknowledgement, appreciation and/or validation from anyone

There's nothing wrong with receiving love, acknowledgement and appreciation from some other beings in our life, if it's there. It's the social/cultural/psychological thinking and belief about human beings 'need' to be receiving love, acknowledgement, appreciation and/or validation from some others or a community for being existing in this world to feel meaningful, love, high self-esteem, worthy, satisfaction, happiness, and so on, that is why so many people are 'suffering' from the sense of loneliness, missingness, meaninglessness, lovelessness, low self-esteem, low self-worth, disappointment, unhappiness, and so on, when they think they are not receiving/getting 'enough' love, acknowledgment and appreciation from some others to fuel/boost their sense of meaningfulness, love, self-esteem, self-worth, satisfaction, happiness, and so on.

Though the 'legal' validation and authorization by some self claimed/community supported 'authority' for being existing, living, doing something and moving around in this world is something else, which is truly unnecessary and shouldn't be existing at all, as well as it's the main source of all kinds of discrimination, unrest and humanity cruelty, but we all are being 'legally bound' by it the moment we were being born into this world, reluctantly. When people actively fight for freedom of anything in this world, it's actually about freedom from being 'controlled' by any 'corrupted' legality/authorization/authority. The world would be a much better place if without any so called legality/authorization/authority that create borders and separation among human beings, while discriminating and oppressing all and everyone 'legally'.

Regardless of the many different types of ethnic, cultural and social background in the world, it's common that many people were being brought up/educated in the way of developing intense attachment and identification towards a personal, family and community identity that fueled by a strong sense of belonging and recognition coming from attaining or receiving love, acknowledgement, appreciation, acceptance, accreditation, validation, liking and support from some others, or family, or a community. This is part of the play of ignorance and egoism that relates to the many kinds of mental and emotional suffering in this world.

The basic practice of yoga and Buddhism is to free the mind from such ignorance and egoism through the practice of dispassion, renunciation, non-attachment, non-identification, desireless, non-craving, non-aversion and non-expectation.

It's normal that many people, including yoga practitioners and yoga teachers, who never practice dispassion, renunciation, non-attachment, non-identification and non-craving/clinging/aversion towards all and everything, would be disturbed very much by the sense of loneliness, missingness, meaninglessness, low self-esteem, unworthiness, disappointment, unhappiness, grief, sorrow, and so on, upon the presence and absence of certain experience, condition and situation that they think and believe is the cause of loneliness, missingness, meaninglessness, low self-esteem, unworthiness, disappointment, unhappiness, grief and sorrow in their life existence.

Self-esteem and self-worth shouldn't and doesn't need to be existing in this life existence of impermanent and selfless names and forms, but that's the way human beings were/are being 'conditioned' to develop 'self-esteem' and 'self-worth' to be somebody who constantly needs to be 'loved', 'accepted', 'acknowledged', 'appreciated', and/or 'validated' by some others, their family and community, from the moment being born until the moment of death.

No one can 'help' those who are reluctant to help themselves to be free from all kinds of mental and emotional suffering by freeing their minds from ignorance and egoism, not to say, those who feel being 'offended' very much by this teaching of yoga and Buddhism about freeing one's mind from ignorance and egoism, alone by oneself, but only looking forward to be giving and receiving love, acknowledgement, appreciation, acceptance, accreditation, approval, agreement, liking and support between one another, to attain certain 'validation' of being 'existing' in this worldly life existence, to chase away the sense of loneliness, meaninglessness, missingness, unworthiness, disappointment, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and so on.

Upon the annihilation of ignorance and egoism, one doesn't even need any 'validation' from oneself, not to say, from anyone else.

Inquiring the truth of everything vs pushing away what the mind believes as bad, wrong and negative

No one can force the mind to be open, to be unattached, to be inquiring towards the truth of everything, as what the teachings and practice of yoga and Buddhism is about.

It has to be coming from the mind itself be willing to open up, to practice non-attachment, and to perform inquiry towards the truth of things, instead of the mind only wants to come in contact with the names and forms that the mind perceives, recognizes, judges and believes as 'good', 'right' and 'positive' that the mind likes and agrees with, and pushing away/denying/doesn't want to come in contact with the names and forms that the mind perceives, recognizes, judges and believes as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative' that the mind doesn't like and doesn't agree with.

Even many of the yoga teachers who teach about Positive Thinking and Mind Purification also refuse to be open, to practice non-attachment, to inquire the truth of everything, including whatever their minds perceive, recognize, judge and believe as 'good or bad', 'right or wrong' and 'positive or negative', that they either like or dislike, agree or disagree with, where they themselves practice while teaching and advising their students to also practice "Keeping the mind away from coming in contact with all the disagreeable things that I think and believe is bad, wrong and negative", without inquiring towards the truth of what their minds believe as 'good', 'bad', 'right', 'wrong', 'positive', or 'negative' based on their particular social/cultural/spiritual/religious thinking, belief, values and practice.

It's everyone's freedom whether they want to be open, to practice non-attachment and to inquire the truth of everything, or not.

There's neither right nor wrong if the yoga teachers and the yoga practitioners who think and believe they love yoga very much, that they are practicing yoga everyday, but they choose to be conditioned and limited by their existing thinking and belief to judge and categorize everything into 'good or bad', 'right or wrong', and 'positive or negative', and only want to come in contact with what they labelled as 'good', 'right' and 'positive', while have intense aversion towards what they labelled as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative', thinking and believing that Mind Purification means only having the 'good', 'right' and 'positive' thoughts in their minds and only allow the 'good', 'right' and 'positive' things to come to their awareness and mind perception of their life existence, and thinking and believing that the coming in contact with the 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative' things will pollute, or contaminate, or ruin their minds, and hence, they do their best to push away anything that their minds labelled as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative', not to say, to confront and inquire the truth of all those things.

Mind purification is not at all about occupying the mind with what the worldly thinking and belief labelled as 'good', 'right' and 'positive' thoughts, feelings, emotions and perception of names and forms, of what the mind perceives through the senses, of what the mind comes in contact with, of what the mind experiences in life, and keeping the mind 'away from' or 'void' of coming in contact with, or experiencing, or perceiving what the worldly thinking and belief labelled as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative' thoughts, feelings, emotions and perception of names and forms through the senses of what the mind sees, hears, smells, tastes, senses/feels and thinks.

"No, no, no! I do not want to come in contact with, or see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or feel, or think of anything that is bad, wrong and negative!" This is the reaction of many of the minds under their understanding about 'positive thinking' and 'mind purification', upon coming in contact with something that their minds dislike and disagree with, that they think and believe as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative'. Again, that's their freedom of understanding and reaction. It's neither right nor wrong. It's just that the minds are not free, even after many years practicing and/or teaching all kinds of 'yoga practice' and attaining all kinds of health and fitness benefit from the yoga practice.

Mind purification is about removing the veil of ignorance and egoism, of all kinds of incorrect/corrupted understanding, thinking and belief, to allow the mind to see or know the truth of things as it is, where all the names and forms are just what they are. They are neither 'good' nor 'bad', neither 'right' nor 'wrong', and neither 'positive' nor 'negative'.

Upon seeing/knowing the truth of things as it is, the mind is being aware of all kinds of mind perception of names and forms, without attachment, identification, association, judgement, craving, aversion or expectation. Allowing all the names and forms being there as they are, coming and going, arising and passing away. All are nothing but impermanent and selfless changes.

The mind that is free from ignorance and egoism doesn't need to think positively, or stay positive, or be optimistic. It doesn't need to push away anything that the ignorant egoistic mind perceives and judges as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative'.

That's why the practice of non-attachment is the upmost important fundamental practice. It allows all the other practices to be happening.

Without knowing what is non-attachment, the mind cannot perform inquiry of inquiring towards the truth of everything, and will be influenced, affected, determined and disturbed naturally/autonomously by all the ignorant egoistic actions and reactions upon coming in contact with the objects of name and form of all the mind perception of names and forms that the mind perceives through the senses selflessly and ceaselessly.

Before the mind knows what is non-attachment, the mind is closed being conditioned and limited by the existing worldly social/cultural/spiritual/religious thinking, belief, values and practice. It never come across the thought of "How true is it about all the thinking, belief, values and practice in my mind, about all my likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements towards everything that I believe and judge as 'good or bad', 'right or wrong', and 'positive or negative', based on those thinking, belief, values and practice, that make me feel disturbed, unhappy, frustrated, irritated, dissatisfied, disappointed, hurt by or even hating the things that my belief and judgement categorized as 'bad', 'wrong' and 'negative'?"

Upon the practice of non-attachment towards all kinds of existing thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind, the mind starts to be open. 

Then naturally, the practice of non-identification towards the existing thinking, belief, values and practice takes place. 

The non-attachment and non-identification will allow the mind to stand as a third party or witness towards all these existing thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind. 

Then the practice of non-judgment takes place, to allow the mind to inquire the truth of all the perceived names and forms, and the reaction of agreements and disagreements coming from the mind towards everything that the mind comes in contact with, without judgment based on the existing thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind. 

Then the mind will start to see the truth of everything, that they are just what they are, neither 'good or bad', nor 'right or wrong', nor 'positive or negative'. 

Then non-craving, non-aversion and non-expectation comes into the practice naturally, where the mind will stop craving/clinging/longing/grasping towards what it used to think and believe as something 'good', 'right' and 'positive', stop aversion/rejecting/denying/pushing away/hating towards what it used to think and believe as something 'bad', 'wrong', and 'negative', and stop expecting everything and everyone has to be or not to be in certain way according to those existing thinking, belief, values and practice in the mind. The mind will stop interfering with all the others who have different thinking, beliefs, values and practices, and isn't interested to convert or change others to also adopt one's particular thinking, belief, values and practice.

The world will have more peace and harmony if everyone is free from such ignorance and egoism. The world is full of unrest, disharmony, discrimination, oppression, fear and hatred because out of ignorance and egoism, everyone are interfering with some others who have different thinking, beliefs, values and practices from oneself, and trying to convert or change all the others to also adopt one's particular thinking, belief, values and practice. People are also easily feel disturbed, offended, insulted and hurt by other people's expression of thoughts, actions and speech that they dislike and disagree with, as they expect other people to behave or not behaving in certain way based on their particular thinking, belief, values and practice, and to show 'respect' in certain way towards their thinking, belief, values and practice.

When the mind has gone through such self-transformation, this mind won't be influenced, affected, determined or disturbed by all the different impermanent qualities of name and form that the mind perceives through the senses selflessly and ceaselessly.

This mind, being free from ignorance and egoism, being free from incorrect/corrupted understanding, being unconditioned by any particular worldly social/cultural/spiritual/religious thinking and belief to analyze and judge everything and everyone, will have peace, without denying or pushing away all the so called 'bad, wrong and negative' elements coming and going in the mind, without being determined or disturbed by all the so called 'bad, wrong and negative' things and happenings in the world, allowing all kinds of different thinking, beliefs, values and practices being existing in the world as they are, without discrimination towards all the others who are being different from one another from the appearance but all are the one same nature beyond all the names and forms that are subject to impermanence and selflessness, and being at peace unconditionally regardless of all kinds of pleasant/unpleasant, desirable/undesirable, agreeable/disagreeable, enjoyable/non-enjoyable experiences while performing selfless compassionate actions in the world for oneself and/or others.

Out of ignorance, people might have fear and worry towards, "If there's no discrimination about what is good, bad, right, wrong, positive and negative, then the world will be in chaos and people would just behave as they like without consideration, if there's no such belief and judgement about what is good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative, about how people should and shouldn't behave." 

If people's minds are free from ignorance and egoism, they won't be performing ignorant egoistic actions and reactions out of ignorance, egoism and impurities.

If people's minds are functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism, then even though there's discrimination of what is good, bad, right, wrong, positive and negative, about how people should and shouldn't behave according to any particular thinking, belief, values and practice, people would still be performing ignorant egoistic actions and reactions out of ignorance, egoism and impurities of anger, hatred, jealousy, greed, hurt, dissatisfaction, disappointment, irritation, frustration, offensiveness, defensiveness, pride, arrogance, painful sorrow, fear and worry, and either wittingly or unwittingly, intentionally or unintentionally, hurting themselves and/or others.

There are so many people believe in certain belief in the world, but did it ever stop people from behaving ignorantly? Nope. Because whether the mind is free or not free from ignorance and egoism is nothing to do with any particular thinking, belief, values and practice. Ignorance and egoism exist in all kinds of people with different social/cultural/religious/spiritual thinking, beliefs, values and practices, regardless of whether people believe or disbelieve in 'God existence', whether people have or don't have a religious or spiritual practice, or what type of religion or spirituality that people have, or whether people are well educated, knowledgeable and intelligent, or not.

It's about whether the mind is free from ignorance and egoism, or not, that determining whether the mind will be peaceful unconditionally, and be free from generating ignorant egoistic actions and reactions that hurt oneself and/or others in the world, or not.

Those who are free from ignorance and egoism don't even need to have self-awareness and self-control to stop oneself from performing actions and reactions out of ignorance, egoism and impurities, as the mind is free from ignorance, egoism and impurities.

The practice of self-awareness and self-control exists for those who are not free from ignorance, egoism and impurities yet, but at least they have self-awareness and self-control towards one's ignorant egoistic actions and reactions that would hurt oneself and/or others.

While all the majority human beings who are not free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, as well as without self-awareness or self-control over their actions and reactions, either wittingly or unwittingly, would still be performing ignorant egoistic actions and reactions out of ignorance, egoism and impurities that would hurt themselves and/or others, even when there's 'discrimination' of 'right and wrong', 'good and bad', or 'positive and negative' about how people should or shouldn't behave under the many social/cultural/spiritual/religious thinking, beliefs, values and practices, as well as the existence of many laws and orders in the world that serve the idea of 'monitoring' and 'controlling' everyone's behavior to be or not to be in certain way.

Contemplate and be free.