Freedom of thinking, action, expression and speech?

Freedom in yoga is about the freedom of being free from ignorance, egoism, attachment, desire and impurities, or suffering. It's not so much about the worldly 'freedom of thinking, action, expression and speech'. But instead, the yoga practitioners constantly restricting one's thinking, action, expression and speech in order to conquer one's mind, to free the mind from ignorance, egoism, restlessness and impurities, or suffering.

For many people in the world, freedom is about the freedom of thinking, action, expression and speech, being free to think, act/react, express and say whatever they like, without any responsibility or consideration towards the consequences of one's action/reaction, or without consideration towards the possibility of many other people's different types of pleasant/unpleasant reaction towards one's particular thinking, belief, action, expression and speech. But, all actions will bring along the consequences of action, whether it's something that we like and agree with, or not.

In the world of egoistic minds functioning under the influence of ignorance and impurities, there will be expected or unexpected desirable/undesirable and kind/unkind reactions coming from different people of different backgrounds, with different thinking, belief, action/reaction or behavior reacting towards other people's different ways of thinking, action/reaction, expression and speech.

Regardless of whether one performs certain action out of 'good' intention, or not, it doesn't and cannot determine how other people should/shouldn't/would/wouldn't react or not react in certain way. One's intention is irrelevant to how other people would react towards one's action.

Expecting all minds are free from ignorance, that all are open-minded, wise and compassionate, that all will react towards everything only with openness, tolerance, peace and understanding, regardless of the different likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements based on the many different thinking, belief, social, religious and cultural backgrounds, that everyone can act/react/express/say whatever they like 'freely' and expect nobody should or will be offended and react ignorantly, even under intense disagreement, is mere ignorance. It doesn't mean that one should act/react/behave as one is even if it will hurt oneself and/or others, under the 'freedom of action', but most minds will act/react/behave ignorantly out of ignorance. Those who are free from ignorance have consideration and self-control over their action and reaction, but most minds are not free from ignorance and don't have consideration or self-control over their action and reaction.

In yoga, 'freedom of thinking, action, expression and speech' is there when one has the clarity and understanding to decide or choose what one wants to think, act/react, express and say, or not. Being able to decide/choose what to think, act/react, express and say, and what not to think, act/react, express and say, that would promote more peace and harmony in oneself and/or others while living in the world of ignorant impure egoistic minds, is the real freedom of thinking, action, expression and speech. It's not about being able to think, act/react, express and say anything and everything freely, even if knowing that it will most probably inflict reaction or consequence of painful sorrow/suffering to oneself and/or other beings. It's not about appropriateness and disappropriateness either. It's about knowing that most minds are functioning under the influence of ignorance, egoism and impurities, and hence, most people are not free from ignorant action/reaction/behavior. The minds that know this, will not waste any energy into actions/reactions that will deliberately lead to peacelessness and disharmony in oneself and/or in the world of ignorance.

 

Just like we can choose to keep our hands away from contacting with fire directly as much as possible because we don't want to suffer injury or pain from being burnt by fire. It doesn't mean that we have fear towards injury/pain, or have aversion towards being burnt by fire. We just don't need to perform ignorant action that will cause unnecessary pain or suffering to the body and mind.

 

It doesn't mean that we are lack of freedom of action when we choose not to perform certain action that will cause injury or pain to oneself and/or others, thinking and believing that 'freedom of action' means, "I want to be able to do everything and whatever I want to do, even if I know it will hurt myself and/or others, such as be able to put my hands into the fire for as long as I want and I expect there's no consequence of getting injury or pain of being burnt." That's ignorance, not freedom at all.

 

It's everyone's freedom whether they want to be free from ignorance, or not.

The world of exploitation

People who have no choice but are living under great desperation to be working to earn an income for making a living, and hence, reluctantly accepting underpaid job(s), where just working for one job for certain reasonable hours per day/week/month is no longer sufficient to survive or support the high cost of living, but they need to work longer hours or take up more than one job at one time, will eventually suffer from certain degree of physical/mental/emotional breakdown as their over-all physical and mental well-being and/or their relationship with their family are under threat or being compromised because they have to be spending all their time and energy into the underpaid work(s) compromising the essential rest time or free time for something else other than 'work' to be looking after their physical/mental health condition, and they don't have the 'energy' and 'attention' left for their relationship and/or family, and above all, being unable to live ‘a balanced life’ that is more than just being ‘a slave of the world of exploitation’ of working hard physically/mentally for their entire life existence just barely earn enough to feed themselves and/or their family, but have no time, no energy and no money left for anything else, until one's body and mind breakdown, or until one dies.

There’s nothing wrong with the statement of ‘all beings has to be performing action for maintaining one’s life existence until one dies’ and ‘be grateful and contented with having enough food and basic shelter for survival especially making a living through honest effort within one’s capability’, as that is part of life existence, but, ‘being exploited by greedy/stingy people exploiting other people to do underpaid work for them under the world of exploitation/desperation’ is another form of ‘slavery’, which is not what ‘life’ is about.

The bondage chain of thought, attachment, desire, action and consequence of action

A thought arise.

Followed by attachment.

Desire of craving or aversion arise towards the thought.

Gratification of the desire of craving or aversion gives rise to action and consequence of action.

Forming the bondage chain of cause and effect, birth and death.

A thought arise.

Stand as a witness.

Witnessing thought after thought, arising and passing away.

Without attachment or grasping/clinging onto the thought (modification of the mind).

Free from desire of craving or aversion.

Transcending the bondage chain of action and consequence of action, cause and effect, birth and death.

This is the open teaching of Yoga and Buddhism.

No shortcut.

No supernatural power.

No fairy tale.

No mystical story.

Just keep purifying, cleaning, clearing, silencing, annihilating the modification of the mind, the idea of 'I'.

Compassion is free from exploitation of sympathy and empathy

People might be aware of there are many kinds of exploitation existing in the world, but not everyone are aware of the existence of the exploitation of sympathy and empathy. Even when people hear that, people would be offended and deny such saying, thinking that the world need more sympathy and empathy. That's their freedom of thinking.

The world do need more compassion that is nothing to do with sympathy and empathy.

In the world of capitalism and consumerism, except for the tiny fraction of the super rich community who would just spend on anything for nothing just because they can, the majority of the low income people would need to be calculative and careful on spending where the cost of living will only get higher and higher. Many people who have low or very low income want to spend as little as possible on the things/products/labour/work/services/resources and etc that they want to get, other than getting the essential things for survival, as that is what they can afford with their underpaid income barely enough for short term survival. There are also some people who manage to make reasonable higher income but they want to spend as little as possible on certain things that they want but are less priority to them, so that they can spend more on some other things that are more priority to them, and they have some 'spending power' to buy things/property with the money that they don't really have but 'borrowed' from bank loan or credit, and hence, this 'normal' human spending behavior is indeed fueling/empowering the loop of exploitation. 

Out of desperation for survival and struggling to make a living, as well as there might be many desires/ambitions waiting to be fulfilled/gratified, everyone is being exploited while working for underpaid income whether wittingly or unwittingly, and everyone is also exploiting others when spending their underpaid income coming from being exploited, while some people exploiting others when spending their sufficient income in order to use 'the saved money from exploiting others' on some other priorities.

"I know you are desperate for income. I can help you by offering you a job. But I only want to pay you this little in return for your labour and service. If you don't want, many other people will want it."

"Oh! I'll take it. A little of income is better than no income at all. I will be grateful for this job. Thank you very much."

This is the beginning of exploitation and how exploitation is being empowered and supported, but out of desperation for getting income for survival or to fulfill their desire for something, many people would think and believe that is what gratefulness and thankfulness is about, and unwittingly supporting and encouraging exploitation to be happening.

Those who are free from ignorance, egoism and desires, who can withstand the worst condition, they do not 'support' or 'encourage' such exploitation to be happening under any circumstances.

In the beginning of the exploitation of underpaid work, labour and service, many people are unwittingly allowing themselves being exploited out of desperation for survival and making a living for themselves or to provide financial support for their family, and after some time, people started to get use to it, and don't see it as an exploitation anymore, but, they would think and believe that's the normal payment they should be getting in return for their commitment, time, energy, effort, attention, knowledge and skill that they put into those work, labour or service, and set it as a 'payment guideline' for doing some other work/labour/service, and would accept even lower payment for doing something that they think is requiring less commitment, time, effort, energy, attention, knowledge and skill by comparing with those work that they have been doing which is underpaid due to the exploitation in the very beginning.

Most people, especially those who are living under certain challenging condition and going through certain difficulty in life, would not like to be exploited of any kind, and some might even actively participating in protest and activism to go against exploitation of any kind in the world, and yet, whether wittingly or unwittingly, people are constantly exploiting each other.

One of the common exploitation that people aren't aware of, is the exploitation of sympathy and empathy, or taking advantage of other people's sympathy and empathy to achieve something that they want. Whether people are aware or unaware, they themselves are exploiting other people's sympathy and empathy, or their sympathy and empathy are being exploited by others.

Many people who would like to think and believe that they are compassionate beings and they want to be compassionate towards other people's suffering and difficulty, would misinterpret egoistic sympathy and empathy as compassion, and whether intentionally or unintentionally, they themselves are constantly 'encouraging' and 'supporting' the exploitation of sympathy and empathy to be happening/existing, which is not what compassion is about, but it's merely part of the by-products of ignorance.

Egoistic sympathy and empathy could easily be exploited, while compassion is void of exploitation of any kind.

For example, many people are being conditioned to think and believe that anyone who have been or is going through 'certain difficult condition, situation or experience', should be naturally 'deserved' to be receiving sympathy and empathy from other people. Whether it's oneself who has been or is going through certain challenging difficulty, and one believes oneself 'deserves' to be receiving sympathy and empathy from others, or it's other people who have been or are going through some challenging difficulty, and one expects oneself and some others should be showing sympathy and empathy towards those people who 'deserve' to be receiving sympathy and empathy from others. There's nothing wrong with that, as that is what most people think and believe that's how everyone should think and believe, act and react, or behave. Or else, it's so wrong, so terrible, so selfish, so harsh, and 'lack of compassion', if people don't think and believe, act and react, or behave like that.

For the minds that are free from ignorance, that isn't just not what compassion is about, but it's actually empowering ignorance and egoism. Being compassionate is free from such thinking, belief, actions and reactions that empower ignorance and egoism.

Those who practice yoga or Buddhism, who are truly wise and compassionate, who are aware of ignorance and the by-products of ignorance, would be free from exploiting other people's sympathy and empathy under any circumstances, as well as do not get involve with any actions or affairs that are directly or indirectly encouraging and supporting such exploitation, whether it's exploitation from others towards oneself, or from some others towards other people.

Compassion is nothing to do with the idea of who and what 'deserve' or 'doesn't deserve' sympathy and empathy.

One can be unconditionally kind towards others in different ways within one's ability and capacity without the idea of 'this (being or happening) deserves kindness' or 'this (being or happening) deserves special reaction/treatment differently than some others'.

One allows others whether to show or don't show sympathy and empathy towards oneself and/or others, without the idea/intention/expectation of 'I and/or others deserve sympathy and empathy from other people'.

One can receive (or reject) certain voluntary help/assistance from others without expecting 'deserving' help/assistance under any circumstances.

It's common that some people like to use the excuse of "I have a difficult life", "I am going through many hardships", "I am a single parent", or "I have to look after my old and sick parent(s)" and so on to receive sympathy and empathy from others with the intention/expectation to get certain 'special compassionate reaction/treatment', or to get something that they want but they can't afford, or to achieve something that they want to achieve but they don't have enough ability/capacity to achieve.

The minds that are free from ignorance, egoism and desires of craving and aversion don't have the idea/intention/expectation of "I and my difficult condition deserve to receive sympathy and empathy, and getting certain 'special compassionate reaction/treatment" from others, even under great difficulty. If they really need to get help, they would try to get it, but it's free from the idea of "I and my difficult condition deserve sympathy/empathy and help". They don't have the desire to get 'something that they want but they can't afford' under any circumstances, or to achieve something that they don't have the ability/capacity to achieve, while allowing others to be sympathetic/empathetic, or not, to show kindness and provide help out of their own freewill, or not.

Exploitation of sympathy and empathy exists when people starting to use what they think and believe as less fortunate/underprivileged condition or challenging difficult situation to gain sympathy and empathy from others, in order to gratify their desires of craving and aversion, to help them to make changes for better in life, to get out of the difficult condition that they don't like, or to do/achieve something that they want to do/achieve that they can't afford or don't have the ability/capacity for doing/achieving it. If people really want to get out from such condition and situation, and want to do/achieve something that they can't afford to do/achieve under those circumstances, they can work on expanding their ability/capacity until they acquire the ability/capacity to do/achieve what they want to do/achieve through their own effort/ability/capacity, without exploiting other people's sympathy and empathy.

To stop exploitation in the world, it's not just that one doesn't exploit anyone with any kind of exploitation, but one must also stay away from being exploited by anyone for any kind of exploitation, to stop 'encouraging' and 'supporting' exploitation of any kind to be happening/existing. Unfortunately, exploitation will continue to be existing as most people can't live without supporting and being supported by the corrupted system of the world of capitalism and consumerism.

It's not about people should be contented and grateful for the exploited underpaid income that provides enough food and shelter, and living a life of 'slavery' spending all energy and effort just to make enough income for survival, to eat, sleep, work and repeat, until they die, and thus, allowing and supporting exploitation to be happening.

It's neither about people are being arrogant and discontented for being too greedy/ambitious for getting higher rewards/payment/income to have a better quality of life, not just living a life of 'slavery', everyday eat, sleep, work and repeat, and hence, people don't want to work for underpaid work, or thinking oneself should 'deserve' a higher pay.

It's definitely not about people are being selfless, desireless and compassionate, and should just work and give even without receiving any payment, not to say, they should be grateful for the 'blessing' of a little bit of payment/income, and hence, 'supporting' and 'encouraging' exploitation to be happening.

Spouses or family members doing something for each other out of love without involving 'payment/income' or 'rewards', is a complete different situation from somebody or an organization/company doing a business making a lot of profits for the owner and/or the board of share holders, but exploiting other people to work for them with the cheapest wage as much as possible, so that they can have a higher margin for profits. Even in a relationship or family, exploitation shouldn't be happening, and yet, people are taking many things for granted, whether people are aware or unaware of it.

Allowing others to exploit or take advantage of oneself and/or others is nothing to do with compassion, and it doesn't remove ignorance and the consequences of ignorance from oneself and/or others. Just as performing many offering, charity, prayers and sacrifices also doesn't remove ignorance and the consequences of ignorance from oneself and/or others.

Just as compassion is nothing to do with giving people whatever they like and desire in order to make them feel happy and satisfied, or feel less unhappy or less suffering.

If people feel under great desperation for money to feed themselves and/or their family and don't mind being exploited working with underpaid income, thinking that having a little bit of income is better than having no income and go hungry or die, that's their freedom. Out of desperation or greed, some people would lie, steal, commit crimes or hurt other people to earn a living, or to get what they desire, that's their freedom. Just as people would give in to corruption out of desperation, by receiving bribe or giving bribe to achieve what they want to achieve, to make their life easier or less hard, that's their freedom.

It's neither right nor wrong. It's just different thinking, understanding, approach, choice and action, that leads to different consequences of action.

Yoga practitioners contemplate on this and free the mind from ignorance.

Open mind under the presence of wisdom and compassion

Open-mind that exists along under the presence of compassion and wisdom is void of ignorance and the consequences of ignorance.

Open-mind born out of compassion and wisdom reflects awareness towards ignorant situation and knowing how not to get into unnecessary ignorant situations and the consequence of that, being free from ignorant thinking/action and the consequences of ignorant thinking/action.

 

There are many passionate minds have misunderstanding towards what is open-mindedness, where they would think and believe that open-mindedness is about 'being optimistically trusting the universe will look after my well-being where I should think and believe in everyone that I come in contact with are all pure, good and kind people without any selfish intention and desire, where I shouldn't have any doubtful/distrusting thinking/feeling towards anyone in order to look after myself and my well-being, by myself, because I think that it's 'bad', 'wrong', 'closed-mind', 'unfriendly', 'ill-thinking' and 'being selfish to look after myself by protecting myself from mistreatment/harm', and I don't want to have 'ill-thinking' towards anyone or 'being selfish to look after myself by protecting myself from mistreatment/harm'. I strongly believe that I myself, am a pure, positive, generous, kind and loving being, that I only will be loved by everyone and will be void of any mistreatment or harm, as I love the universe/God and the universe/God loves me', and thus, ignorantly coming in contact and dealing with ignorant beings with impure intention and desire, and getting involve in ignorant situations/events that give rise to mistreatment/harm to oneself. This is actually ignorantly 'encouraging' mistreatment/harm or crimes to be happening.

Keeping the hand away from close contact with fire to avoid getting injured/burnt is not 'bad', 'wrong', 'ill-thinking', or 'being selfish'. By not keeping the hand away from close contact with fire, but deliberately keeping the hand in close contact with fire, thinking that it's 'bad', 'wrong', 'ill-thinking' or 'being selfish' to keep the hand away from fire, and I want to be 'open-mind' where I should believe in the universe or God will protect me from any harm, is ignorance, or mere stupidity.

Being compassionate, friendly and open mind towards all beings doesn't mean that one should be ignorantly and wittingly letting oneself to be taken for granted/advantage by those with selfish intention/desire, or giving the opportunity for others to misbehave and endangering oneself to be mistreated/hurt by the ignorance of others.

Open mind towards all without judgment is more about being opened towards everyone could be kind or unkind, depending on the current state of their minds, without judgment of 'This is a kind person' or 'This is an unkind person'. One doesn't need to trust, or distrust, or mistrust anyone for anything.

This is similar to where the teaching of 'surrendering' in Yoga is also being misunderstood by many passionate minds in the same way. 'Surrendering' in Yoga is about surrendering the ego and egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, performing all our duties and actions without attachment, renouncing the fruit of actions, being dispassionate and desireless. It doesn't mean that one doesn't need to be responsible for one's actions and the consequences of actions, or doesn't need to be responsible to be looking after the well-being of oneself and those under one's care. Such like, driving on the road. One needs to be attentive and stay alert while driving, and be responsible to follow the traffic rules, and watching out for 'reckless drivers' or 'other road users'. 'Surrendering' doesn't mean "Ah, I surrender to God completely. Everything is God's will. Whatever will be, will be. I must not have 'ill-thinking' towards anyone that some of the drivers might be driving recklessly. I shouldn't have 'negative thinking' about there could be 'unexpected objects/animals' might be on the road that I need to watch out for. I don't need to drive carefully with attentiveness or stop at any traffic lights and junctions, and without watching out for the other road users or any unexpected objects/animals on the road, and I will arrive safely at my destination without any problem." That is ignorance, or mere stupidity.

How to live in the present?

Whether the mind is aware or unaware, agrees or disagrees, there's nothing else other than NOW. There's no living outside of NOW. It's always being in NOW, living in NOW, regardless of the ignorant impure egoistic mind is always wandering between the remembrance towards 'the past memory of impermanent changes of names and forms that the mind perceived as something pleasant/happy/enjoyable or unpleasant/unhappy/suffering' and the anticipation/projection towards 'the future being in certain way that the mind perceived as desirable or undesirable'.

Due to the function of the memory of remembering/observing the process of the impermanent changes of names and forms, from birth, to growth, to aging, to decaying, to old age, and to death, of all kinds of desirable/undesirable and pleasant/unpleasant experience/relationship, on top of the movement of the earth in NOW that generate the perception of day/brightness and night/darkness as well as the natural interchange cycle of the state of rest/sleep and waking, and the mechanism of the movement of the clock or watch that generate the strong idea of the existence of 'time', of past, present and future.

One can perform this experiment of watching the entire process of cooking the bread in the oven. The action of watching all the changes in the entire process of cooking the dough to become bread, is always in NOW.

Under the function of the timer/clock/watch, the bread takes about '40 minutes' to be cooking from the form of a dough to become a ready to eat bread. But the bread is always being cooking in NOW, and keep cooking in NOW until the bread is ready and stop cooking, which is also in NOW. The process of cooking the bread through the high heat produced by the oven that changes the entire structure/texture/taste of the dough to become the form of bread, that generates continuous changes of the form of the dough/bread from moment to moment is always in NOW, in this present moment.

No matter how much/little and what type of changes are happening in this present moment, it's always in NOW.

One might remember one has slept for a few hours earlier, but the remembrance of 'that' is in NOW. It's always [I am sleeping/not awake], [I am awake/not sleeping], [I am doing something], [I am not doing something/anything], and constantly remembering [I was sleeping], [I was awake], [I slept], [I didn't sleep], [I did something] or [I didn't do something/anything] in NOW, while the body is going through impermanent changes ceaselessly.

The witness/observer of impermanent changes is timeless, it's always NOW. There's neither a past nor a future. The mind might be remembering 'the past experiences/impermanent changes' and imagining/anticipating 'the future anticipation', being aware of many people/beings had lived and died, many things/relationships had appeared and disappeared, many feelings/sensations had arose and passed away, but all these modifications are always in NOW.

The physical body and the thinking mind is always living/going through impermanent changes in NOW, until the process of death/decomposition takes place, it's also in NOW. The process of aging/decaying is always happening in NOW, until death/decomposition takes place, in NOW.

If the mind is free from or knows how to detach/unattached towards the remembrance of all the impermanent changes of desirable/undesirable and pleasant/unpleasant perception of names and forms or experiences, there's no hurt, or grief, or sorrow, or regret, or guilt. If the mind is free from or knows how to detach/unattached towards the imagination/anticipation towards 'the future', there's no fear or worry.

It's either one is okay or not okay, comfortable or uncomfortable, in NOW, in this present. It's normal and nothing wrong if one is not okay or uncomfortable in NOW. Whether one is okay and comfortable, or not, this is impermanent and it is changing and passing away.

The mind is being influenced by the world of consumerism and capitalism

We grew up being 'inspired' by 'the world of a commercialized and capitalized society' to be motivated to 'study and work hard' or 'not being lazy/laid back/useless', to 'achieve' and 'appreciate' certain standard/quality of living achieving particular lifestyle that emphasized on developing and empowering passionate egoistic desires and be inspired to be ambitious to perform actions or work that increase 'spending power' or 'income' that helps the gratification/attainment of all kinds of passionate worldly desire/success/achievement/enjoyment, to fit into 'the elite group of successful people' that based on 'worldly recognized social/educational/financial status and social/academic/economic achievement and contribution', where life is no longer about having a skill to be making enough livelihood or finding food and shelter to survive in the present moment, without the urge of possessing and hoarding more than what we need to survive in this present moment, without fear and worry towards 'the future', but life is very much under the influence of consumerism and capitalism, where the basic survival instinct of getting enough of daily needs, shelter and food for survival in the present is being taken over by the 'necessity' of 'possession' and 'hoarding' under the fear and worry towards 'the future that seems to be uncertain/insecure', as well as there's endless egoistic discontentment of greed/craving for 'more' and 'higher' ongoing personal/global success and achievement/recognition, until the body and mind can no longer function properly to 'work' anymore, and/or there's desire to be indulging in 'higher' and 'latest' pleasurable enjoyment of the senses until the body and mind can no longer function properly to enjoy the objects of the senses.

The way of living and the meaning/goal of life under particular social thinking, belief, value and practice of human beings is basically being 'determined', 'influenced' or 'led' by the world of consumerism and capitalism.

People might think that it's because there's new demand for certain products crops up, and hence, some people are being creative to produce those products to meet the demand of the people. But actually, the world of consumerism and capitalism constantly 'create' and 'produce' many different kinds of 'new product', where the business people and the capitalists simply and constantly create 'trend and demand' for their 'innovative' products in the society through various mediums of advertisement, telling/manipulating the minds - "You need this", "You want this" and "You deserve this".

'The standard of something' or 'the belief of something' in the world about how the mind thinks, believes and judges as beautiful or ugly, good or bad, right or wrong, meaningful or meaningless, positive or negative, success or failure, appropriate or inappropriate, aspiration and inspiration, and so on, is very much being 'created' or 'dictated' by the business people and capitalists in the world of consumerism and capitalism.

Most untrained minds, no matter how well-educated or knowledgeable they are, would also be influenced and manipulated by all sorts of information that sanction and give rise to all kinds of 'standard' and 'belief' about this and that, which were being repeatedly 'ingrained' into the minds, from everywhere, either wittingly or unwittingly, being aware or unaware, adopting 'standard and belief about this and that', passing down/on from generation to generation, where the entire life existence is being influenced by and lived according to 'the way of life aligning with the standard and belief influenced mostly by the world of consumerism and capitalism', including different kinds of social media platform, gadget, telecommunication, app, entertainment, game, tourism, fashion and accessory, lifestyle, food and drinks, diet, clean eating, health care, medical care, beauty product, skin care, hair care, body care, fitness training, spiritual healing, self-improvement, home decor, hobby, education, job, career, investment, family value, social circle, all kinds of festival and convention, all kinds of celebration day, and etc.

And hence, from long time ago, the teachings of Yoga and Buddhism reflect high importance onto the observation or the practice of 'renunciation', 'silence', 'solitude', 'seclusion' and 'dispassion', moving the mind away from the worldly society/affair/interaction/activity/input for a prolonged period of time, in order to 'cleanse out' all the worldly passionate egoistic ideas, beliefs, values and practices out of the mind efficiently, purifying the mind to allow the mind to see things as it is, not being influenced by any worldly passionate ideas, beliefs, values and practices to judge everything and/or living a life that meet up certain 'standard and belief' about 'what is good, positive, successful and meaningful life'.

Renunciation doesn't necessarily means that one has to become a monk or a nun and live with the monk and nun community, as even being a monk and nun living in the community of monk and nun, people might not be practicing renunciation, silence, solitude, seclusion and dispassion. Just as some people want and try to live the life of so called 'minimalist', also doesn't determine that one is practicing renunciation, silence, solitude, seclusion and dispassion, or one is free from attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment and expectation.

x x x x x x x x x x x

"Renunciation is necessary, but inner renunciation born out of true knowledge that the Atman is Akarta and Abhokta, and that it is not affected by the actions of the sense-organs, is considered preferable to external renunciation of physical actions. Man should perform his duties, in the proper spirit. Such actions do not bind him, but on the other hand they help him to liberate himself.

The deluded attachment to men and women, friends and relatives, money and gold, has to be ruthlessly burnt to ashes! All the so-called duties of the world have to be kicked away for the sake of that glorious state of Self-realisation.

Kick off the world ruthlessly. Enough of tea and coffee, enough of soda, lemonade and crushes, enough of novels and cinemas, enough of races and aeroplanes, enough of father, mother, brothers, children, friends and relatives! You came alone and you will go alone.

A worldly-minded fashionable wife (or husband) is a sharp knife to cut off the life of the husband (or wife). Be wedded to Santi and have Vairagya as the sons, and Viveka the magnanimous daughter and eat the delicious divine fruit of Atma Jnana which can make you immortal!

Application of soap to the body, oil to the hair, powder to the face, looking into the mirror a thousand and one times a day, wearing rings on the fingers - these and many like these will intensify your attachment to the body. Therefore give up all these things ruthlessly.

The cause of pain is love of pleasure. The cause of death is love of sensual life. Death is a horrible thing to him who is intensely attached to sensual life. Words like cremation, murder, death, corpse, burial, make the sensualist shudder at heart, for he is extremely attached to the body and the objects of the senses. "How to part with the sensual objects?" is his great cause of misery. Pity!

According to vedanta, annihilation of Adviya or ignorance leads to Samadhi. According to Patanjali Rishi, the aspirant attains Samadhi by removing the hold of Prakriti by practice and discipline.

The Vedantin enjoys the eternal bliss and natural easiness of Sahaja Samadhi. He remains as Sakshi or silent witness. He does not make any serious attempt to control the psychic stream or thought-current. He raises the Brahmakara Vritti by meditating on the significance of "Tat Tvam Asi" Mahavakya.

The Samadhi in the Jnani is effortless and spontaneous. Wherever the mind goes, there it experiences Samadhi. He rests in Samadhi always. There is no "In Samadhi" and "Out of Samadhi" for a sage. He enjoys freedom, bliss and peace, in all moments of his life.

Yogic Samadhi is analytical and discriminative. In this Samadhi greater stress is laid upon the discrimination between the Prakriti and the Purusha. In Jnana Samadhi, no discrimination is needed. Brahmakara Vritti, raised by an attempt to become identical with the Supreme Self or Brahma Chintana, destroys Avidya and dies by itself.

No more words. Enough of discussions and heated debates. Retire into a solitary room. Close your eyes. Have deep silent meditation. Destroy the Sankalpas, thoughts, whims, fancies and desires when they arise from the surface of the mind.

You are left alone now. You have nothing to see and nothing to hear. There is none to cheer you. You will have to depend on yourself. Do not look backward. Forget the past. Forget the body and the world." 

- Swami Sivananda.

Health is wealth?

It's good that people are appreciating good health and want to invest in attaining and maintaining good health.

Of course it would be good if one can have good health in the mind and in the body.

While, healthy mind without a healthy body is totally fine.

The greatest yogi doesn't necessarily must have a fit and illness-free physical body, but the mind has no attachment or identification towards the impermanent selfless physical body.

Healthy body without a healthy mind is something else.

Do not loose the health of the mind while trying to achieve the health of the body.

Health freak is not what yoga is about.

The middle path and renunciation

The teachings of Yoga and Buddhism is being practiced on the middle path. It's neither leaning towards indulging oneself in pleasurable enjoyment nor intentionally torturing oneself in difficulties and painful suffering, but it's living a life of simplicity without drowning in greed/discontentment/stress towards achieving higher success/achievement/enjoyment/comfort/security in life, and without struggling under insufficiency of daily needs to be looking after the well-being of the body and mind while living in the world, independently and self-sufficiently, as much as possible.

The path of renunciation is indeed the middle path, though many people would categorize it as one form of extremity. One can renounce the worldly life consisting of worldly passionate social relationship, connection, interaction and activity without torturing one's body and mind in painful suffering, while living a modest simple way of life, being in seclusion and solitude most of the time, where one would perform necessary actions and dealing with other people/beings if necessary, but without engaging in worldly social interaction and activity, and without attachment or clinging towards worldly relationships and connections as well as pleasurable enjoyment of the senses.

No doubt that everyone needs to 'work' or performs action to be looking after the life of the body and mind, but for the yoga practitioners, one doesn't need to spend entire life time and energy into achieving worldly success and achievement in 'working' to be more wealthy, successful and secured financially, but after spending some time and energy into 'working' to acquire enough livelihood, one can spend more time and energy into looking after the well-being of the body and mind, which isn't about building relationships and connections by engaging in worldly social interactions and activities, just like what most people, including mental health professionals would think and believe that active engagement in passionate social interactions and activities to be building relationships and connections is essential for mental and emotional health.

For the yoga practitioners, looking after the mental and emotional health is more about retreating from all those worldly relationships, connections, interactions and activities to quiet the restless activity of the mind, mentally and emotionally, understanding that all joy and happiness deriving from engagement in pleasurable, desirable and agreeable relationship, connection, interaction and activity, will change and disappear eventually. Impermanent changes might not affect or disturb the minds that have developed strong foundation in dispassion and non-attachment, but most of the untrained passionate minds that attached strongly onto names and forms that are pleasurable, desirable and agreeable would be determined by impermanent changes, and be affected and disturbed mentally and emotionally.

It's neither right nor wrong in the two contradicting approach towards looking after the well-being of the mind mentally and emotionally, it's just different understanding or realization towards what is suffering and the cause of suffering.

The worldly passionate minds think and believe that the lack of social relationship, connection, interaction and activity is the cause of mental and emotional illness/suffering, and thinking that the solution is through seeking comforts deriving from active engagement in passionate social relationship, connection, interaction and activity, to feel good and better.

While the dispassionate minds stop empowering or gratifying the desire of craving and clinging towards passionate social relationship, connection, interaction and activity that might make the mind feels good and meaningful momentarily, but then the mind would suffer very much mentally and emotionally if the pleasant enjoyable agreeable social relationship, connection, interaction and activity is not available for some reasons. And so, they work diligently to root out egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, which is the root cause of all restlessness and suffering, to allow the mind to realize unconditional peace that is nothing to do with momentary pleasant good and meaningful feelings deriving from engagement in pleasant/desirable/agreeable passionate social relationship, connection, interaction and activity.

The mind is peaceful as it is, regardless of the impermanent condition of life, the body, the mind and the world.

Be free from gross and subtle attachment, clinging and craving

This teaching is more suitable for those who are endowed with intense yearning for liberation, who are aware of ignorance and egoism and the consequences of it.

 

Those who are not interested in transcending the mind perception of a worldly life of names and forms, but merely interested in doing certain favorite yoga asana and breathing exercises of particular style and brand to attain some health and fitness benefits, to attain momentary physical/mental/emotional relief, pleasantness and calmness deriving from performing the different types of yoga and meditation practice, while enjoying all kinds of worldly relationship, connection, interaction and activity with other people/beings who are like minded, whom one perceives as one's family, friends and relatives, that give rise to the sense of meaningfulness, satisfaction and fulfillment, to chase away the sense of dissatisfaction, meaninglessness and loneliness, they don't need to practice the teaching of yoga about renunciation, solitude and seclusion, to renounce all kinds of worldly relationship, connection, interaction and activity, to efficiently free the mind from both gross and subtle attachment, clinging and craving towards desirable/agreeable relationships, connections, interactions and activities that gives rise to the sense of meaningfulness, goodness and fulfillment.

The worldly passionate mind would perceive discomfort/unrest/suffering/unhappiness/meaninglessness/loneliness/emptiness when it is being cut off from the familiar worldly relationships, connections, interactions and activities for a certain period of time. People, including mental health professionals, think and believe that people will be mentally and physically sick and die due to loneliness, emptiness and meaninglessness, if without connecting, contacting, communicating and interacting with some other human beings. That's their freedom of thinking and belief. And hence, the practice of renunciation, solitude and seclusion is definitely not for them, as they will be crazy, sick and die due to being over-whelmed by the sense of loneliness and meaninglessness deriving from practicing renunciation, solitude and seclusion, as it's too painful, difficult, terrible, guilty and depressing for them to be without worldly relationship, connection, interaction and activity.

Only those who are determined to transcend the worldly life of impermanent selfless names and forms, who are endowed with the intense yearning for liberation, even when life experience and condition is rather good and comfortable, knowing that all is impermanent and selfless, would be interested in the practice of renunciation, solitude and seclusion, being dispassionate towards the fleeting worldly life of names and forms, of worldly affair and condition that are being limited by cause and effect and impermanence, powered by ignorance and egoism, and hence, they could renounce all kinds of worldly connection, relationship, interaction and activity, without much difficulty, allowing the mind be able to be free from not just gross but also subtle attachment, clinging and craving towards worldly connection, relationship, interaction and activity.

Those who chase after the sense of meaningfulness, goodness and fulfillment deriving from being passionately engaging in worldly social and spiritual connection, relationship, interaction and activity, where they think and believe that the attainment/presence of the sense of meaningfulness, goodness and fulfillment is the meaning of life existence, or the highest achievement of their spiritual practice, or the goal of yoga and meditation practice, they would perceive the teaching and practice of renunciation, solitude and seclusion as something out of date, absurd, abnormal, negative, selfish, meaningless, or even useless.

 

In the many social cultural belief and practice, renouncing worldly relationship, connection, interaction and activity are being perceived as unacceptable inappropriate wrongful way of being. People would be criticized and condemned by the passionate egoistic family, friends and relatives, if they don't engage in family, relative and friends social visit/meet up/get together/celebration, not to say, completely cutting off all kinds of contact and communication. There's nothing wrong with that, as it's everyone's freedom for what they think and believe as well as what they want to do and don't do with their life. These minds are not free, as they would loose the sense of meaningfulness and goodness, if for some reasons, desirable/agreeable worldly connection, relationship, interaction and activity are unavailable, especially for a prolonged period of time, that give rise to the sense of meaninglessness, emptiness, uselessness and loneliness to the mind.

The gross and subtle attachment/clinging/craving towards all kinds of relationship, connection, interaction and activity is one of the greatest obstacle for many yoga practitioners, including so called 'yoga teachers'. The great spiritual ambition/aspiration to be connected with people/other beings/nature, or fellow yoga community/family as much as possible, to be as meritorious and virtuous as much as possible, desiring to be transitioned towards better or higher realm of existence, to create/build yoga community, yoga school and/or yoga ashram, to hoard 'family/friends/brothers/sisters', 'students', 'disciples' and 'followers', under the 'good intention' to share 'yoga' or 'love' with as many beings as possible, are indeed the sign of subtle attachment/clinging/craving that the mind doesn't even aware of. All these names and forms of relationship/connection/interaction/activity/merit/virtue/better or higher realm or transition/the sense of meaningfulness, goodness and fulfillment deriving from spiritual aspiration, achievement, contribution, action and interaction, don't exist for the silent mind.

 

Though renouncing worldly relationship, connection, interaction and activity, the dispassionate minds can still be performing actions that would be beneficial towards oneself and the world, but it's free from any 'ambition', 'aspiration', or 'intention', without expecting life or the world has to be in certain way according to particular desire, thinking and belief, but allowing life and the world being what it is. This 'intention-less action' is unthinkable for most passionate egoistic minds that believe in all actions must be inspired by and performed out of intention/aspiration and motivation to bring out certain result/success/achievement that they expect how it should be. These minds need to be driven by certain intentional motivation/expectation as well as certain result/achievement/recognition/acknowledgement/accreditation/appreciation/compliment/encouragement to perform all kinds of action.

It's everyone's freedom for what they know and don't know, what they understand and don't understand, and what they think and don't think.

Self-Inquiry - Try contemplate upon "What is this (I)?" instead of "Who am I?"

For those who are interested in the teaching and practice of Yoga or Buddhism, the main similar practice is about self-inquiry, to inquire the truth of individual being existence by contemplating upon "Who am I?", where most people interpreting as "Knowing who we really are, or who is the real 'I'."

Because of the literal meaning of the words being used in the question of "Who am I?" regardless of being translated into whatever languages, the mind takes it as there is a permanent self-existence (of who I really am) undergoing the process of reincarnation of being born in countless different life existence/transformation existing as different individual being under different names and forms, and I am trying to filter and drop off all kinds of imperfect momentary identity of different names and forms in order to uncover and reconnect with my real identity of who I really am, where many minds believe and desire that "who I really am" or "the real I" is something 'spiritual', 'pure' and 'perfect' that is imperishable, indestructible, unchangeable, permanent, absolute and infinite, with some kind of 'transcendental superpower' where all kinds of 'miracles' happen under my command/wish, having all my desired imaginations/wishes come true, where everything will be exactly the way as I wish, with absolute unlimited freedom to be whatever I want to be, being with those who I want to be with, go wherever I want to go and do whatever I want to do, where there's no limitation of hunger, thirst, old age, weakness, injury, sickness, death or suffering, but only desirable pleasant enjoyment.

And hence, the mind is 'stuck', couldn't go beyond what it thinks it knows, where the mind is unable to transcend the selfless modification of the mind perceiving all kinds of names and forms of a worldly life existence, couldn't go beyond the idea of 'I', where the mind thinks and believes 'I' exists as an individual being, hoping/desiring to have better transformation in better world, hindering the mind from self-realization, to realize selflessness, or 'I'lessness, or egolessness, to be free from the ego, or the idea of I of the existence of an individual being existing and experiencing (different) life existence or impermanent transformation.

Self-inquiry is more about contemplation upon "What is this 'I' that 'I' think and believe as an individual being existing and experiencing a worldly life existence that is comprised of all kinds of duality, where (I think) I experience desirable and undesirable experiences, where (I think) I feel happy/satisfied and unhappy/dissatisfied, where (I think) I try to learn many things to be able to survive and satisfy my desire of craving and aversion, to find and achieve the meaning of my life existence, to set goals/directions for my life, where (I think) I was born, where (I think) I live a life, where (I think) I have many different kinds of happy/unhappy relationship with different individual beings, where (I think) I enjoy and suffer, where (I think) I will die, and where (I think) I will be transforming into another name and form either in the same world or in a different world according to the good/bad deeds that I have been doing and accumulating."

If the mind replaces the inquiry of "Who am I?" with "What is this 'I' that 'I' think is 'me' or 'myself', whom 'I' think and believe is existing as an individual being experiencing this life existence of happiness and unhappiness, who is doing all these thinking, who performs actions and enjoying the fruit of actions?", then this will allow the mind to 'look at' or investigate 'itself' from a different perspective, sort of like a (non-existent) third party to investigate/inquire the modification of the mind, or what the ignorant egoistic mind thinks and believes is the existence of an individual being perceiving/experiencing this and that, and without attachment and identification towards the selfless and impermanent modification of the mind perceiving names and forms of a worldly life existence, and be able to eliminate the ego/the idea of 'I' and egoism, where the mind can be free from the idea of 'I' and egoism, and absorbed into Silence/Samadhi (The annihilation of the modification of mind), transcending names and forms, births and deaths, actions and the fruit of actions, enjoyment and suffering.

There's no 'I' existing. There's no 'I' am selfless, or I am performing selfless actions. There's no 'I' am selfish or unselfish. There's no 'I' am good or bad. There's no 'I' am transforming into this or that. There's no 'I' am enjoying or suffering.

The mind (or the thinking faculty as part of the function of this physical body,) is functioning and perceiving all kinds of names and forms in this present moment, restlessly acting and reacting, generating ceaseless actions that bring along pleasant/unpleasant consequences of actions, and that's all. The modification of the mind, or the thought currents, or the thought activities, ceaselessly arising and passing away selflessly, countless births and deaths of different 'states of mind/worlds' happening, in this present moment. Neither it's 'I' nor there's 'I'. There's neither past nor future. There's neither performer of actions nor the enjoyer of the fruit of actions.

Contemplate upon the teaching of "The world of names and forms is the by-product of the modification of mind. There is no perception of the world or life existence (in Silence/Samadhi/Annihilation of the modification of mind)", along with the process of performing self-inquiry.

Fearlessness and desirelessness are 'the two sides of a coin'. Similarly, selflessness/oneness/non-separateness/attributelessness/namelessness/formlessness/birthlessness/deathlessness and fearlessness/desirelessness are 'the two sides of a coin'.

As long as there is still the ego, or the idea of 'I' exists along with the modification of the mind, there's ceaseless births and deaths (in this present), there's an 'individual being' existing and experiencing the world of a worldly life existence being satisfied or dissatisfied about this or that, there's egoism of attachment/identification/craving and aversion/judgment/comparison/expectation, there's survival instinct, there's separateness, there's desire and fear, there's possessiveness and protectiveness, there's ceaseless actions and the fruit of actions, which gives rise to endless births and deaths (in this present) within the modification of the mind.

As Swami Sivananda mentioned in his teachings, "Kill the mind," or in another term, "Annihilate the modification of the mind," if the mind thinks the word 'Kill' is inappropriately used as the mind believes it's representing the quality of violence, non-compassionate, unkind, unloving, negative, bad and wrong. This is nothing to do with 'killing', 'changing', 'controlling', 'over-powering', 'influencing', 'uplifting' or 'inspiring' other minds. It's about this mind silencing its own modification, attaining Silence/Samadhi.

Want to reform the system of the world?

Human beings, regardless of one's gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, belief and nationality, whom themselves, or who are aware of some others, have been experiencing certain kinds of discrimination whether coming from within their own 'group' or coming from some other 'groups', who have 'good' intention and aspiration of getting involve in different types of activism/protest with the intention/aspiration to reform the highly corrupted system of the world, who want to promote peace and harmony in the world, who really want the world to be free from all kinds of discrimination among the enormous diversities in the world, people need to work on reforming oneself first, by conquering one's human nature that is under the influence of ignorance and egoism as well as the basic survival instinct, which is the mother of all kinds of corruption and discrimination either existing within the same 'group', or among the different 'groups'.

All kinds of activism and protest are useless, if people think and believe that there are something wrong/incorrect with the world or with certain people's thinking, beliefs and behavior, and trying to reform the world or certain people's thinking, beliefs and behavior to be in certain way that they desire and agree with, that they think how it should be, but without reforming themselves first.

Once everyone knows how to reform oneself, free from being the slave of ignorance, egoism and survival instinct, there is no need of any kind of activism and protest to be existing, to go against 'this' or 'that' in any society, anywhere in the world.

Many people think and believe that education is the most important thing in the world for developing a healthy society and prosperity, and it's true, but it depends on what type of education.

If it's just education to have the knowledge, skill and qualification to be able to find a job/do a business, to make a living in the world of capitalism and consumerism, that supports the world economy and prosperity, as well as education that is under the influence of certain 'morality practice', 'spiritual practice', 'religious belief' or 'political interest', that is feeding egoism which empowers 'personal/social identification' which generates all kinds of separateness/comparison/discrimination between 'I' and 'the others that are not I', that encourages 'greed', 'selfishness', 'possessiveness', 'the sense of belonging', 'pride', 'heroism', 'nationalism', 'loyalty' and 'patriotism', where it doesn't want or allow the people to question the truth of everything, or be able to think and live life independently, that would 'threaten' the 'existence', 'power' and 'profits' of all sorts of 'authority', it won't stop/eliminate all kinds of corruption and discrimination in the world.

The education should be emphasizing on self-control, self-discipline, self-inquiry, self-investigation, self-realization, self-reliance, physical/mental/emotional independence and open-mindedness, of how to be free from ignorance, egoism and impurities - the root cause of all kinds of humanity problem in the world, besides developing the knowledge and skill to be making a living in the world of capitalism and consumerism, or to be able to live a self-contained/self-sufficient way of life that doesn't need to depend on the society of capitalism and consumerism, or the economy/prosperity of the world.

The education on self-control, self-discipline, self-inquiry, self-investigation, self-realization, physical/mental/emotional independence and open-mindedness, of how to be free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, is universal. It has nothing to do with any particular 'morality practice', 'spiritual practice' or 'religious belief', as ignorance, egoism and impurities also exist in so called 'morality practice', 'spiritual practice' and 'religious belief', not to say, in 'political interest'.

Corrupted education is sort of like 'parents' who want to 'mould' their children to be in certain way, to 'train' their children to be obedient and don't question anything about their 'authorization' and 'whatever they want their children to listen and follow'. If the children behave according to their 'rules', or achieve 'what the parents want them to achieve', which pleases them, then they would give their children some 'praising' and 'rewards', but if their children don't behave according to their 'rules', or don't achieve 'what the parents want them to achieve', then they would give their children some 'disciplinary' and 'punishment'. And the parents want the children to become 'somebody' that they want them to become, and expect the children to 'give' the parents what they desire to be getting from the children. "Do something and be somebody that make us feel proud." The 'corruption' of the entire society, of the 'authority', of the 'system' in the world, is deriving from this kind of 'family relationship'.

Beware of anything that sounds like this, "Just obey. Do not question my authorization. This is the Truth and you must believe in this Truth. It's sinful and punishable if you disbelieve in this Truth or have any doubt towards this Truth."

In yoga and Buddhism, it's all about attaining self-realization towards the truth of everything. It's not a sin or punishable if one is ignorant towards the truth or is doubting the truth of something. The Truth is not a belief. The Truth doesn't need anyone to believe in it nor doesn't like anyone disbelieve in it or has doubt in it.

"Do not blind believing, blind following, or blind practicing anything, even if it's coming from your parents, elders, school teachers, religious teachers, best friends, members of the society, famous philosopher, or popular political leaders. Inquire and investigate the truth of everything, including all the teachings here." There's no 'authority' to 'discipline or punish' anyone for being ignorant under the influence of ignorance.

It's about being aware of the ignorance in oneself.

It's needless to be looking for a great teacher here and there.

None can teach, or discipline, or liberate anyone who isn't aware of ignorance in oneself, while those who are aware of ignorance in oneself, then the impermanent and selfless modifications of one's mind, as well as one's actions and the consequences of one's actions, is one's greatest teacher towards knowing Thyself, and be free from ignorance.

Compassion is not something that can be obtained from receiving, learning, training or education. Compassion manifests as it is upon the annihilation of ignorance, egoism and impurities, upon the realization of selflessness.

Compassion is not about giving people whatever they like and want and desire, and don't give them what they don't like, don't want and don't desire, in order to make them feel good, satisfied, meaningful and happy, or so that people won't feel bad, dissatisfied, meaningless and unhappy, though that is what most people understood as 'compassion' - give people happiness/convenience/comfort and take away their unhappiness/suffering/discomfort.

Compassion is there as it is, when the mind is free from egoism of attachment, identification, expectation, judgment, or desire of craving and aversion, 'respecting' the law of nature - Cause and Effect, Impermanence and Selflessness, 'respecting' the world as it is and everyone as they are (existing and functioning under the law of nature), 'allowing' everyone to take their own pace and effort to know their own minds, to know Thyself, realizing what is actually going on in their own minds, to realize selflessness, being free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, transcending the mind perception of a worldly life existence of impermanent and selfless names and forms, be able to deal with all kinds of pleasant/unpleasant, agreeable/disagreeable, desirable/undesirable experience, condition and situation independently and equanimously, being free from suffering deriving from ignorance and egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation.

Feedback for yoga teachers?

In the last few months, there were hundreds of blog views coming from the search word "Feedback for yoga teachers".

Looking at the pandemic lockdown and social distancing situation, it's normal that many yoga teachers who used to conduct yoga classes to be making a living would move their classes onto the online social media platform. And hence, as the 'new normal', there are now many online (guided) yoga classes.

Personally, I neither encourage/support nor discourage/unsupport 'the old normal' yoga classes, or 'the new normal' online yoga classes, as it's everyone's freedom for what they do and don't do, even though I myself am not interested in conducting 'yoga classes' in the past, not to say to be conducting 'online yoga classes' in the present. In the world of capitalism and consumerism, if there's a demand requesting certain service and product, and there will be somebody offering the service and product, especially if people are interested in learning to do some yoga exercises as a healthy leisure activity, it's something very good for the society to have 'yoga classes' or 'online yoga classes'.

First of all, it's a new thing for both the 'yoga teachers' and the 'yoga students'. The process of teaching and learning yoga (asana) practice in a physical present yoga class is no doubt being quite different from teaching and learning yoga (asana) practice via online yoga class.

The teacher can't be paying attention to many students at the same time in physical present yoga classes, not to say in online yoga class, where there's a rather small computer screen with many different small windows of the different people joining the 'online yoga class'. Unless it's a one to one private yoga practice session, or private online yoga practice session.

Even though, in many of the physical present yoga classes, the yoga students are being advised not to turn/tilt their head to be looking at the teacher or the others while performing most of the yoga asana positions or exercises, as it might cause certain muscular sprain or injury around the neck and shoulder area, but many of the students would still be spontaneously turning/tilting their head while performing many of the yoga asana poses/exercises in order to take a look or glance at the teacher and/or the others under their own different intentions/motivations/reasons for doing that, mostly it's curiosity, or trying to imitate, or trying to compare, or being unsure/unclear about the practice and being not confident towards one's performance or execution. Not to say, in the online yoga classes, the entire attention is to be turning the head in a particular angle to be constantly looking at the computer screen, to be following some instructions and imitating the teacher and/or the others to be doing the yoga asana poses or exercises.

Of course, there will be many opinions coming from different participants who want to 'improve' their experience on the online yoga class, and want to give feedback/advice/suggestions to the yoga teachers who conduct the online yoga classes, and most of the teachers also welcoming 'feedback' from the participants to improve the experience on teaching online classes and to improve the quality of their online classes. Mostly it's either about the positioning of the camera so that they can have a better view angle to see more clearly towards how the teacher demonstrates the practice/exercise, or something to do with the usage of microphone and volume control, or the pacing/intensity of the particular practice/exercise/routine, or the format and contents of the yoga class, or about the background and the layout of the room use for giving the online class, the impact of the surrounding environment, the music (most commercial yoga classes use music to create certain atmosphere), and etc. It's all about the whole experience or the mind perception of names and forms of different qualities that are agreeable or disagreeable to the minds of everyone.

Yoga practice is about freeing the mind from such attachment and desire of craving and aversion towards the mind perception of names and forms through the senses, of what the eyes see, what the ears hear, what the nose smells (in this case, what the participants smell or don't smell is nothing to do with the yoga teacher or the online yoga class), what the tongue tastes, what the body or skin senses, as well as what the mind experiences, thinks, feels, acts and reacts.

Yoga practice is about dispassion, renunciation, silence, solitude, seclusion, non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-comparison, non-expectation, self-control, self-discipline, self-reliance, self-inquiry, self-realization, inquiring the truth of names and forms, inquiring the truth of 'I', knowing thyself, the elimination of the root cause of suffering - ignorance, egoism and impurities, the annihilation of the modification of the mind, transcending the wheel of birth and death, cause and effect, or attaining liberation or Samadhi. All these has nothing to do with 'qualified/certified yoga teachers', 'yoga teachers certification', 'yoga classes', 'different brands and styles of yoga school, lineage, practice', 'physical ability/disability/limitation', 'physical health condition', 'worldly condition and situation', 'surrounding environment', 'proper precise physical alignment while doing the yoga poses/exercises', 'yoga props', 'yoga mats', 'yoga attires and accessories', 'yoga scents', 'yoga music', 'yoga super food', and etc.

If one is truly teaching or practicing yoga, it's really not about whether the yoga teacher is good or not good; whether the many different details of the yoga class are good or not good; whether the practice/exercise/routine is good or not good; whether the contents of the yoga class is good or not good; whether the way that the teacher conducts the yoga class is good or not good; whether the instructions are good or not good; whether the result of the teaching, the yoga class and the practice is good or not good; or whether the teaching skill of the yoga teacher is good or not good; not to say, whether the students/participants/somebody's performance, or execution, or physical alignment is good or not good; whether one's body and mind feels good or not good, being comfortable or uncomfortable throughout the practice.

It's about there's an opportunity where someone is there delivering the teachings and practice of yoga that would lead the minds towards self-realization and liberation from ignorance and suffering, without attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, as well as someone is there receiving, learning and practicing the teachings and practice of yoga without attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation, to transcend the worldly life existence of a body and mind that is subject to impermanence and selflessness; to transcend the mind perception of qualities, names and forms that are impermanent and selfless; to go beyond duality of good/bad, right/wrong, positive/negative, meaningfulness/meaninglessness, praise/censure, success/failure, heat/cold, pleasantness/unpleasantness, happiness/unhappiness, enjoyable/non-enjoyable, and so on; to go beyond the egoistic likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements based on the worldly conditioned passionate egoistic social/cultural/spiritual/religious/political thinking and belief; to tame the outgoing tendency of the restless mind, turning the mind inward; to be in the present; to quiet, silent and annihilate the modification of the mind; to perform self-inquiry; to free the mind from the veil of ignorance, egoism and impurities; to realize the truth of suffering and the root cause of suffering; to realize selflessness and attain liberation from 'mind stuff', or 'modification of the mind', or 'all that related to the mind perception of an impermanent selfless worldly life existence', or 'endless suffering deriving from the bondage of birth and death, cause and effect'.

In short, it's about guiding the minds to be free from ignorance, egoism, impurities and suffering (upmost important), while in the process of doing or not doing some forms of physical and mental practice under many different names, brands, ways or styles (not important at all).

Either through physical present yoga session or online yoga class, whether the teacher is teaching yoga as it is, or not; whether the students of yoga will be learning and practicing yoga as it is, or not; with correct understanding, attitude and mentality or not; and realize yoga, or not, it's their own effort and responsibility.

Feedback about the quality of the yoga teacher, the venue/environment/background, the technical issues, the teachings, the teaching skill, the interactive skill, the creativity, the charisma, the atmosphere, the yoga class, the practice, the result, or the entire experience, is truly irrelevant in the process of eliminating ignorance, egoism, impurities and suffering in one's mind, or in the process of letting go/renouncing worldly conditioned passionate egoistic thinking, belief, values, practice, actions, reactions, expectations, desires, aspirations, inspirations, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, and etc.

Inquire into the conditioned behavior pattern of the mind

Under the influence of different family background, educational background, cultural background, religious background, spirituality background, social, philosophical or political background, of all kinds of input coming from everywhere apart from the basic instinct of living beings, human minds are being conditioned to think, feel, believe, act and react or behave in certain way, conditioning the mind to analyze and judge everything based on the conditioned thinking, belief and practice about what is good or bad, right or wrong, positive or negative, happiness or unhappiness, meaningfulness or meaninglessness, appropriateness or disappropriateness, and etc, although most minds aren't aware of it under the veil of ignorance.

When something happens, whether it's happening onto oneself or others, autonomously, the mind will react based on the conditioned thinking, belief and practice, and would expect others would also react in the same way, and would be puzzled, disturbed, offended and annoyed by others who don't react in the similar way as one would be reacting, because the behavior pattern of other minds are being conditioned differently under different thinking, belief and practice influenced by different types of background.

In certain society and culture, minds are being conditioned to react towards what the conditioned thinking and belief categorized as bad, wrong, terrible, painful, sad, sorrowful or undeserving, with the reaction of, "Oh no! Poor me/you." and either feel sorry for oneself if it happens to oneself, or feel sorry for others if it happens to some others, as well as expect sympathy/empathy from others to also show similar sympathetic/empathetic reaction. But, what a mind feels and doesn't feel, or how it perceives and reacts towards the similar happening, can be very different from one another. Something that appears to be bad and terrible for one culture might be nothing bad or terrible for some other cultures.

It's neither right nor wrong about all kinds of different conditioned mind behavior pattern under the different thinking, belief and practice under the different societies and cultures. But most of the conditioned minds functioning under the influence of ignorance and egoism will be disturbed and puzzled by the different reactions or non-reactions of the others towards the similar happenings.

In many different society, something happen that most people would be angry about, that they think and believe that it is something that deserves the reaction of anger, or to be condemned, and they would tell themselves and others that "We should be angry and feel angry. This is bad, wrong and terrible. Why would anyone not react with anger towards something like this? One must be crazy if one doesn't feel angry for such happening."

That is how the so called 'sympathetic'/'empathetic' society comfort themselves and others about how everyone 'should' feel and react under such and such circumstances, and would categorize those who don't feel or react the same as 'lack/void of sympathy/empathy', 'crazy', 'mad', 'insane', or 'psychopath'. If that's true, then all those past enlightened saints and sages, who renounced the world and 'care-less' towards the ignorance and the consequences of ignorance in the world, who remained equanimous and peaceful under any condition and situation, had their minds tamed being undetermined by ignorance and the consequences of ignorance, they all were insane and psychopath, while the worldly minded who think all their 'reactions' are something 'normal', 'righteous' and 'healthy', would perceive themselves as 'mentally healthy' for reacting in such and such way. Even many 'yoga teachers' in the world also would think and believe like that.

Everyone can feel and react as one desires, as one is, as it is everyone's freedom on how everyone wants to feel and react towards everything, but in the path of yoga and Buddhism, those who have conquered their own mind, who are free from the influence of ignorance and egoism, have the will-power of choice towards how to feel and react, or not. It's not about "One should autonomously feel and react in such and such way towards such and such circumstances." That's also how selfish greedy people in the world would manipulate people's thinking and behavior, and make use of the 'autonomous' reaction of most human beings to create situations that would benefit them to get what they want.

Being undetermined by conditioned behavior pattern of the mind and being undetermined by the quality of names and forms doesn't mean that one wouldn't perform any necessary actions that would help and benefit others. One can be performing action selflessly and fearlessly, without being conditioned to react in certain way according to any particular thinking, belief and practice about how everyone should feel, act and react.

Yoga and Buddhism practice is about freeing the mind from ignorance and the conditioned behavior pattern of the mind. The world will have less human beings constantly feel annoyed, disturbed, offended, angered, frustrated or unhappy about this or that. There will be peace in those who are free from ignorance and the conditioned behavior pattern of the mind, who respect everyone as they are, not necessarily agreeable to one's particular thinking and belief to analyze and judge everything, and naturally, it helps to bring more peacefulness into the world.

The important and effective practice to free the mind from being conditioned into a particular behavior pattern is non-attachment and non-identification towards one's family, educational, cultural, religious, spiritual, social, philosophical or political background. While for the minds that feel it's difficult to practice non-attachment and non-identification, but are still interested in transforming one's mind, then they can practice renunciation or moving the mind away from such environment that empowers attachment and identification with all kind of qualities, names and forms.

Those who have strong foundation in non-attachment and non-identification don't need to renounce the world of egoistic identification with all kinds of quality, name and form, and live in the world as it is, but without being influenced, affected, disturbed or determined by any qualities, names and forms.

Those who are not (really) interested in peace, they don't have to practice yoga or anything that is about changing and transcending one's mind behavior pattern, where it's not about trying to control, influence and change other people's thinking and behavior to be the way that one thinks and believes how it should be, the way that one can agree with, based on one's particular family, educational, cultural, religious, spiritual, social, philosophical or political background.

Inquire the root cause of separateness and discrimination

In the many different society, community and nationality with different ethnics and cultures in the world, there's something in common that everyone think and believe as something good and right, "You must be grateful to your own family, tribe, culture, community and country, and you must give back to your own people and protect your own people from any external threat/intimidation/invasion/hostility/belittling/humiliation."

Human beings are being brought up in such way at home, at school, at work, in the community and country, for how they think and what they believe as good and bad, right and wrong, positive and negative, should and shouldn't, appropriate and inappropriate, being trained to be 'loyal', 'patriotic' and 'caring' for their own people/family/ethnicity/tribe/culture/community/country.

There it goes and expands, separateness and discrimination exist everywhere in the world, even in those who think and believe that they are going against 'discrimination' and fighting for 'non-discrimination'.

As even the identification of "We are citizen/human beings of the world. The entire world is our home, and we shouldn't discriminate one another in the world", is not free from the idea of "We need to be grateful to our own beings. We must give back to our own beings and protect our own beings and our home," that generates separateness and discrimination towards 'non-citizen/human beings of the world', or 'outsiders', or 'foreigners', or 'aliens', as there are countless worlds in countless universes.

Those who truly know what is the source of 'discrimination' and 'non-discrimination', there's no need to go against 'discrimination' or fight for 'non-discrimination', as 'discrimination' doesn't exist in those who are free from any sort of identification, and 'non-discrimination' doesn't exist upon the absence of 'discrimination'.

 

There is no need of having any identification with any names and forms in any kinds of selfless and impermanent existence in this world that doesn't belong to anyone. There is no 'I', 'we', 'us', 'mine', 'ours'.

Everyone without 'any identification with any names and forms' can be contributing or giving back to the world, and can be kind and compassionate and helpful towards anyone without any 'discrimination' towards anyone under different names and forms, without the idea of "I need to be grateful to give back to my own people/beings and protect my own people/beings from the others that are not one of us." Unfortunately, not many minds can truly understand this.

It's common reaction that most people would get offended upon coming in contact with this teaching, and categorized this kind of teaching as 'bad', 'wrong', or even 'dangerous/threatening' towards what they think and believe as 'we, us and ours', of their own particular family, ethnicity, tribe, culture, community, or country, as they feel threatened by such teaching that they think would 'destroy' their 'bubble' of 'a strong family/ethnicity/tribe/culture/community/country', where they believe it's essential to have 'strong identification as one of us', 'loyalty', 'patriotism' or 'caring for our own people/beings', in order to protect one another within that family/ethnicity/tribe/culture/community/country from any 'external' threat/intimidation/invasion/hostility/belittling/humiliation from 'outsiders', 'foreigners', 'aliens', or 'those who are not one of us.'

If people really want the world to evolve or progress 'healthily', people need to free their own minds from ignorance and egoism, and see the truth of the root cause of all kinds of 'humanity problems' in the world.

It's okay if many people don't like to hear this, and the world continues to evolve as it is, under the influence of ignorance and egoism. In less than 150 years or so, all kinds of people that are existing in this present moment now, regardless of whether under the influence of ignorance and egoism, or not, whether people think and believe themselves are good or not good enough, selfish or unselfish, contributing to good or bad happenings, will all be gone. Although the left behind damages derived from ignorance and egoism might last a little longer in the world for the next generations to deal with. Just like now, we all are dealing with the damages derived from the ignorance and egoism that left behind from the previous generations.

 

Inquire towards the truth of everything.

What to renounce and embrace in renunciation?

What to renounce in renunciation?

Renounce the idea of 'I', 'my' and 'mine'.

Renounce action and the fruit of action. It doesn't mean non-action or irresponsible towards the consequences of action, but performing action without attachment, identification, intention and expectation, and allowing the fruit/result of action being what it is, as it is.

Renounce egoism of attachment, identification, desire of craving and aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation.

Renounce qualities, names and forms.

Renounce past pleasant/unpleasant, desirable/undesirable, enjoyable/non-enjoyable, happy/unhappy experiences and future imagination/anticipation/projection.

Renounce day dreaming and building castle in the air.

Renounce scheming, plotting, planning.

Renounce petite mindedness and stinginess.

Renounce worldly social relationships, connections and interactions.

Renounce worldly affair, habit and activity that empower egoism and ignorance.

Renounce worldly ideas, values and objects.

Renounce worldly thinking and belief.

Renounce superstitious belief and practice.

Renounce healing and gratification of desire through superstition practice or superhuman power.

Renounce novel, magazine and news reading, TV and movie watching, and theater visiting.

Renounce self-righteousness based on particular social, cultural, tribal, racial, religious or political thinking and belief, values and practice.

Renounce physical/mental/emotional intoxicant and addiction.

Renounce pride, arrogance, greed, jealousy, envy, admiration, blaming, fault-finding, slandering, back-biting, gossiping, flirting, dissatisfaction, disappointment, offensiveness, defensiveness, anger, hatred, violence, fear and worry.

Renounce debates, discussions and arguments.

Renounce possessiveness, selfishness and protectiveness.

Renounce worldly passionate greed and ambition, desire and lust.

Renounce spiritual greed and ambition, students recruiting, ashram building, cult forming, follower and disciple hoarding.

Renounce the outgoing tendency of the mind.

Renounce interference towards others' diverse way of living, thinking, belief, values, practice, judgment, action, inaction, reaction, non-reaction, behavior, and so on. What others do with their life, their energy, their body and mind, is their own freedom and responsibility.

Renounce the urge to change or control the world and everything to be the way that I like it to be, or the way that I think how it should be.

Renounce extremity of laziness/idleness and restlessness, over fasting and over eating, rigidness and slackness, austerity and indulgence, and etc, without comparing with one another, as what is extreme for one might be moderate for another, and vice versa.

Renounce chasing after sympathy, empathy, love, attention, support, recognition, acknowledgement, accreditation, appreciation, praise, compliment, agreement, approval, friendship, companionship, enjoyment of the senses, name, title, entitlement, fame, respect, authorization, power or wealth.

Renounce intention, aspiration and inspiration.

Renounce self-idolization, self-glorification, self-boasting, self-flattering.

Renounce duality of what the worldly social/cultural/religious/political thinking and belief categorized as good/bad, right/wrong, positive/negative, happiness/unhappiness, meaningfulness/meaninglessness, success/failure, praise/condemn, respectfulness/disrespectfulness, deserving/undeserving, and so on.

Renounce the sense of confidence, self-esteem, self-worth and meaningfulness.

Renounce the sense of humiliation, guilt and shame.

Renounce the sense of being hurt, intimidated, belittled, insulted, disrespected, bullied, piteous, ill-treated, and etc. Understanding that all kinds of human beings action and behavior that resulting in hurting/disturbing/violating some others are deriving from ignorance and mental illness/corruption, and hence, need not be determined by the products of ignorance existing in the world. Being ignorant is not a crime, or sin, or punishment deserving, but it would lead to many ignorant actions and reactions that bring along further ignorant consequences, and all minds perceiving this impermanent selfless worldly life existence of names and forms are under the influence of ignorance, unless the mind realizes ignorance in itself and be initiated to be free from ignorance.

Renounce grief and sorrow.

Renounce the sense of boredom, meaninglessness and loneliness.

Renounce clinging towards the world of impermanent selfless names and forms of the mind perception of worldly life existence.

Renounce ignorance and the consequence of ignorance.

 

Renounce blind-believing, blind-following, blind-practicing and blind-propagating.

Renounce physical, mental and emotional dependency, unless one is suffering from physical, mental or emotional illness/malfunction/disability.

Renounce worldly egoistic freedom or satisfaction deriving from the gratification of passionate egoistic desire of craving and aversion, by attaining/experiencing what I like and want or desire, and not getting/experiencing what I dislike and doesn't want or doesn't desire.

Renounce political involvement, power accumulating, leadership or grouping.

Renounce any form of 'legal' and 'illegal' gangsterism and its similarity, such like worldly authorization is one kind of 'legally approved' and 'supported by most people' gangsterism which seizes power, possession and control over certain land, space, resources and the people on earth, and then collect money in the form of tax from the people with the excuse in return with providing public services, certain kinds of benefit, legal documentation/recognition/privilege/rights and certain degree of protection, while generate separateness and discrimination in the society to create fear and hatred among each other, creating the best situation for the authority to be in business by keeping in power to dominate the society and exploiting natural resources and manpower, by harassing, oppressing, torturing, persecuting and prosecuting anyone who appear to be 'illegal', 'disrespecting', 'disobeying', 'going against' the authority.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

What to embrace in renunciation?

Embrace dispassion, solitude and seclusion in silence.

Embrace quieting and purifying the mind.

Embrace living/being in the present.

Embrace fearlessness.

Embrace open-mindedness and generosity.

Embrace patience, perseverance, determination, forbearance, tolerance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation.

Embrace calmness, clarity, correct understanding, contentment, simplicity, truthfulness, straightforwardness, non-violence, non-possessiveness, non-authorization, non-separateness and non-discrimination.

Embrace non-attachment, non-identification, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-comparison, non-expectation.

Embrace selfless compassionate kindness that is void of attachment, identification, intention and expectation.

Embrace self-inquiry and investigation towards the truth of everything, being uninfluenced by personal likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements deriving from worldly social/cultural/religious/political thinking and belief.

Embrace physical, mental and emotional independence as much as possible unless due to deform, injury, sickness or old age, one has no choice but has to be dependent on some others physically or mentally for certain things in this limited impermanent and selfless life existence.

Embrace right discrimination or wisdom that removes the veil of ignorance and leads to non-separateness and non-discrimination.

Embrace peace and harmony.

Embrace tranquility.

Embrace nature and the law of nature.

Embrace the truth of impermanence and selflessness.

Embrace everything as it is, not necessarily the way that I think how it should be and the way that I desire it to be, respecting the perceived names and forms, conditions and situations as they are, not necessarily pleasant or desirable, without being determined or disturbed by pleasant/unpleasant, desirable/undesirable perception of names and forms or experiences.

Embrace the yearning for liberation.

Embrace true freedom or liberation, being free from ignorance, egoism, impurities and suffering.

Embrace unconditional peace, being free from ignorance, egoism and impurities, being undetermined, unaffected, uninfluenced, undisturbed by the mind perception of different qualities of impermanent and selfless names and forms perceived through the senses.

Embrace self-effort, self-control, self-discipline, self-introspection and self-realization.

Embrace oneness, non-separateness, namelessness, formlessness, attributelessness.

Embrace annihilation of the modification of the mind.

Embrace silence.

My daily asana practice 2020 stamina training (8)

This is part of my daily asana practice for stamina training.

Stamina training in yoga isn't just about enhancing physical stamina, strength and flexibility, but more importantly, it's about developing inner stamina, strength and flexibility, which is endurance, perseverance, determination, forbearance, patience, tolerance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation, while being free from attachment, identification, craving, aversion, judgment, comparison and expectation.

How to practice yoga for the mind to transcend names and forms?

How to practice yoga for the mind to transcend names and forms, to realize unconditional peace and freedom?

Stop identifying with any quality of names and forms as 'I', or what/who the mind think is 'I', or 'This is I'. Such as specific specie, race, culture, nationality, family background, gender, sexual orientation, personality, characteristic, appearance, talent, skill, likes and dislikes, agreements and disagreements, thinking, belief, spirituality, religion, political view, lifestyle, social status, social network, friend circles, educational background, career, profession, livelihood, experience, contribution, non-contribution, achievement, non-achievement, ability, disability, and so on.

Living within this worldly egoistic society that is being conditioned by documentation/nationality/citizenship/specific rights under specific law and orders, which derived from basic instinct of living beings and human civilization of 'survival instinct', 'self-protectiveness', 'selfishness', 'possession of land and resources', 'food agriculture', 'village', 'township', 'city', 'country', 'capitalism', 'consumerism', 'procreation' and 'greed', we all are unwittingly being 'forced' to carry certain 'social personal identity' with certain names and forms to be living and moving in this world, (or else, one would be 'illegal' being anywhere on Earth and would be discriminated, persecuted and prosecuted if without any 'proper/legal' documentation and citizenship), but all these identities with different names and forms are not 'I', and it's not easy to be living and moving in the world if being 'illegal' without all these so called legal/proper/essential documentation/recognition, even though all these shouldn't be existing in the beginning.

But, it's possible to free the mind from attachment and identification towards all these external identities with different names and forms as 'I', or what we think and believe as 'who/what am I', while 'playing' along with the worldly games of 'legality and all kinds of documentation/rights/permission' for being where you are and what you are and what you do, to be able to have a livelihood and the limited freedom of moving around only within the area that is 'legally allowed'.

The moment the mind identifies as "I am this or that" and "I am not this or that", separateness and discrimination exists in oneself, regardless of whether one is aware of it, or not, agrees or disagrees with it.

As long as there's any identification of any particular name and form as 'I' or "This is I/This is not I", even as "I am good/I am not good", or "I am a good human being/I am a bad human being", or "I believe in God/I disbelieve in God", "I am female/I am male/I am neither female or male", or "I am a yogi/I am not a yogi", separateness and discrimination is there naturally as it is, even if we have no intention at all to generate separateness and discrimination between ourselves and all the others whom are not being identified within the same category of similar name and form. This is not denial of 'fact', as some people would argue about that.

Even when the mind perceives all the different names and forms, colours and shapes, features and characteristics, but the one same nature of everything under all the different names and forms is the same - Impermanence and Selflessness. If one keeps following the truth of impermanence and selflessness to inquire the truth of everything, it would lead/guide one's mind towards liberation from ignorance, egoism, impurities and suffering, even without a particular human or non-human teacher being existing to guide oneself, even if the world is a messy place full of all kinds ignorance and corruption, which all started from the selfish desire to hoard and possess resources and lands, to protect 'goodness' and 'mine-ness', to eliminate 'badness' and 'the threats towards mine-ness', with the excuse 'to keep things in order/under control'.

This practice of non-identification/non-attachment towards impermanent names and forms that leads to the realization of selflessness, is the very basic practice, as well as the upmost important practice in the path of yoga and Buddhism.

Otherwise, even by passionately fighting for 'non-discrimination', and keep shouting 'Say No To Racism/Stop Racism', 'Say No To Discrimination/Stop Discrimination', 'We All Are One', 'We All Are Citizen Of The World', 'We Want Peace', 'We Want Freedom', 'We Want Change', and etc, it won't work, as the world will still be the same, full of 'corruption', 'oppression', 'unjust', 'unrest', 'separateness' and 'discrimination' everywhere, even if the authority appears to be giving in for the moment, and seems to be giving people what they demand/wish/want to see and hear, it's just a momentary strategy for 'pleasing the people' on the surface, and meanwhile, there are some other 'selfish messy things' that are brewing underneath somewhere, while everyone is happily thinking and believing that they have successfully made a change in the world, that they have gotten what they wanted from the authority.

Separateness and discrimination is there, even when one thinks and believes that oneself is completely free from any discrimination towards anyone or anything, which is impossible, as even the idea/notion/identification of "I don't discriminate anyone or anything" is separateness and discrimination itself. Unless one attains 'self-realization' towards selflessness/egolessness/'I'lessness, where there's no 'I' existing to be identified as "I am discriminating or non-discriminating."

The 'self' in the 'self-realization', is not referring that 'there is a self-existence/individual being/soul/spirit', but it's the selfless/'I'less mind realizing the truth of 'I'/'self', or 'who/what the mind thinks and believes and identifies as a self-existence of an individual being', where there's no 'I', or 'self-existence', or 'individual being', but just merely the selfless mind perception of an impermanent and selfless names and forms of a life existence under the selfless function of a physical body and the perceptive/thinking mind forming, changing, decaying and deforming. If the mind perceives meaningfulness, it's just the mind feels meaningful. It's not "I am meaningful" or "I feel meaningful". And even that perception of meaningfulness is impermanent and selfless.

It's not that difficult to realize the truth of impermanence, but ignorance and egoism hinders the mind from realizing selflessness, even for those who gave up many worldly relationships and things trying to conquer the mind, as there's an identification of 'I', or 'self-existence', being there hindering the mind to annihilate the delusive existence of an ego. "I am practicing", "I am improving/declining", "My practice is good/not good", "My mind is good/not good", "I have a good meditation practice today", "I like to practice X brand/X style yoga", "I learn and practice XXX yoga. I am a XXX yogi", "I want to be like my teacher/guru", "I wish there's a great teacher to guide me", "I couldn't do my practice because I was sick", "I can do my practice now because I am in good health", "I am performing selfless service/action", "I am selfless/I want to be selfless", "I am kind and compassionate/I want to be kind and compassionate", and so on.

Let it go. Let go all the 'I', 'my', 'mine'. And one will know.

When the mind transcends all the different qualities of impermanent names and forms of what it perceives through the senses selflessly, it will realize unconditional peace and true freedom being undetermined, unaffected, undisturbed and uninfluenced by any quality of names and forms, may it be the quality of 'good' or 'bad', 'right' or 'wrong', 'positive' or 'negative', 'happiness' or 'unhappiness', 'meaningfulness' or 'meaninglessness', 'pleasantness' or 'unpleasantness', 'praise' or 'condemn', 'pleasurable enjoyment' or 'painful suffering', and so on.

Some people might say, "I don't want this kind of peace and freedom. It doesn't sound right, as we need to get involve, we need to be active in order to make changes, to fight for our rights, peace and freedom."

If people can think about it calmly, it's ridiculous that anyone needs to 'fight for' or 'obtain' certain rights, peace and freedom from any 'Authorization', or 'Organization', or 'particular existence', in this world.

Protests of any kind, and fighting for any rights or benefits from 'Some Body' or 'The Authority', shouldn't be existing at all. None should be 'documented', 'recognized', 'approved', '(mercifully) be given certain rights' by such and such 'Person' and 'Authority', in the first place. Who give 'them' the power to be 'possessing' so much power and 'owning' everyone's freedom of being existing on earth? It's 'The People' themselves. People don't see the root cause of 'why would anyone need to obtain or fight for 'certain rights', 'peace' and 'freedom'. None 'owns' anyone. None 'belongs' to anyone. None needs to 'be given' or 'receiving' any rights from anyone or so called 'The Authority'. Any kind of 'Rights' that discriminates those that are 'non-eligible for Rights' or 'less Rights', shouldn't exist at all. Everyone is just what they are and how they are. Who are supporting those who become 'The Authority' who then created 'The System' with all kinds of rights? It's 'The People' themselves, who gave away their basic freedom of being existing on earth to an 'Authorization'.

People think and believe that it's normal or there's nothing abnormal, where all and everyone need to be 'documented', 'recognized', 'allowed' and 'approved', to 'live somewhere', to 'survive', to 'obtain something', or to 'apply something', or to 'fight for something', from 'somebody' or 'the authority' to be who they are and where they are, so that they can be 'legally' being 'recognized' by 'somebody' or 'the authority' to be living/surviving/moving on certain restricted area on Earth. 

 

It's absurd that anyone would naturally be 'illegal' being anywhere on Earth upon birth, until one is 'recognized' and 'documented', and one would be persecuted and prosecuted if without any 'legal/proper' documentation and citizenship, even though all planets, lands, oceans, mountains, space and natural resources in the world or the universe doesn't belong to anyone or anything, but they were being 'self-claimed'/'conquered'/'dominated'/'robbed' by certain human beings from the very beginning until now. Except probably those people who become 'The Authority', who are the ones who create and carryout those 'law and orders' to 'dominate' the rest of the people, are not bound by 'The System' that they have created. And people who started to realize so many things that are 'not right' in the world, are still being there continuing to support to have 'The Authority and The System', wittingly or unwittingly, allowing 'The Authority and The System' to be in power to do all that.

If people truly want to experience real non-separateness and non-discrimination in this world, it's not about changing 'The Authority or The System', it's about abandoning 'The Authorization and The System', by letting go all kinds of nationalities, borders and documentations, but it will only works if all and everyone letting it go, as 'The System' cannot run without the majority of 'The People' being there who want to be 'protected' by 'The System', to be given 'the privilege of certain rights' for being somewhere and somebody, and to move about and make a livelihood here and there within a limited area, legally. If there are still some people supporting 'The Authorization and The System', they will still be in power and will only benefit certain group of people of their own supporter, but oppressing/discriminating/controlling/prosecuting all the others, who would like to be free from all those that shouldn't be there in the first place.

Most people would not want to abandon Authorization and The System, as they are reluctant to let go 'the privilege of receiving and having certain rights' that they received from an Authorization and The System. People who are living in a rather comfortable space and have more than enough livelihood would like to have 'The System' to 'protect' them, their home and their livelihood, as well as there's fear of "What will happen if themselves become 'the unwanted/unwelcome illegal immigrants' anywhere in the world, without 'proper/legal' documentation/recognition and losing all their privilege and rights to be somewhere, to live somewhere, to make a living somewhere, to go somewhere, or to do something?" While the world, the earth, the lands, the oceans, the mountains, the resources, the space, the air and the universe doesn't belong to anyone or anything, but 'The Authorization' took all that and claimed 'power' and 'dominate' everyone, by telling everyone, I am doing this (running The System) to protect you, your livelihood, your home and your benefits from foreign attack, invasion, or damage. "There are bad people out there waiting to hurt you and your livelihood. We are here to keep them away to protect you and your livelihood." That's what they want everyone to think and believe. This is not any different from GANGSTERISM.

Most people who are mentally healthy don't want to 'hurt', or 'invade', or 'attack', or 'rob', or 'conquer' anyone or anything that doesn't belong to anyone, intentionally, where all and everyone are free to be sharing the resources that are available anywhere on earth. Most living beings just keep moving to find resources to survive. And all kinds of resources don't belong to anyone. But somehow, somewhere, somebody/a community started to claim ownership or possession towards certain resources that they found, and want to keep it all for themselves and stop any others coming to 'share' some of it. And out of survival instinct, most people would think and believe that that is the best way running the world in order to be able to survive, at least enough for themselves.

Ridiculous, but most people don't see that as ridiculousness, but for them, it is something great.

Even a rather good country with good (kind and compassionate) leadership running 'The System', discrimination is still existing, as the resources are limited and they need to 'keep it for themselves and their own people', even if they would like to share some of their resources with some others, they cannot take everyone onto 'their boat'. They have to filter and discriminate who and how many they want to bring onto 'their boat' to share their limited resources.

For those who are interested in searching for unconditional peace and true freedom, who are interested in practicing yoga of renunciation and dispassion, can contemplate on the teaching and practice of transcending names and forms. Inquire the truth of everything.

Those who aren't interested in renunciation and dispassion to realize unconditional peace and freedom that seems to be not the kind of freedom that they want, they don't have to do anything, but continue living their everyday life as they like, as they are. Living in The System, supporting The System. If they don't like anything about The System, they complain and protest, and they might get some 'nice treats' from The Authority from time to time, so that they will think that The Authority is not so bad anyway, thinking that they would rather be 'protected' by The System than attaining independence and dealing with the world being shared among all and everyone peacefully without discrimination.

Most people talk highly about independence, but they don't really like to be independent. It's too tough for them. They only like independence from being controlled by 'the others who are not them', that they perceived and categorized as 'predator/enemy/invader/those who are not us', but they want to be controlled by their very own Authority, no matter how bad and corrupted it is, and feel 'as long as I have the privilege of certain rights' and 'I am being protected somehow'.

"One of our own go out there to invade some other's land and take over their resources, is being praised and recognized as 'our hero', while the others come to invade our land and take over our resources is being condemned and recognized as 'intruder/robber/enemy/bad people'." How contradicting that is.

The world has its own natural system and running on that system of the law of nature autonomously. But, human minds have fear towards "without leadership, authority and human made system to keep things in order and to control human's conduct and activity, to protect 'our' resources, livelihood, goodness and homeland." Many 'good' people also concern about the nature or the earth would be damaged by certain 'bad' people, and think that they need an Authority and The System to protect the nature or the earth. But, ever since there's authorization and human made system existing in the world, did it stop anyone who are mentally-ill, greedy and selfish, and have intention to be doing something that 'good' people think they shouldn't do, from behaving selfishly and destructively? Nope. Did it effectively get rid of all kinds of ignorant selfish social interaction and activity? Nope. But, it becomes a platform that gives rise to many forms of corruption, prejudice, unjust, oppression, separateness, discrimination, violence, hatred, crimes, wars, 'legal' invasions, fear, unrest, and etc.

Even in the world of Yoga and Buddhism is not free from being influenced by worldly egoistic ideas and system.

In Swami Sivananda's teachings, "The world would probably run smoother if all the leaders are being taken out of the world."

Renounce the world. None can change the world by controlling/expecting the world to be in certain way that 'I' think how it should be, unless all and everyone is free from ignorance and egoism, and the world is fine as it is, without the need of 'control'.