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Yoga is skill in action

Yoga is skill in action

A webinar by swami Sitaramananda 05/06/21

The law of karma applies to everyone and everything   

The Bhagavad Gita is the scripture of yoga that teaches about the 4 paths of yoga, and the most important teaching is about karma yoga. What Karma does mean?  A lot of people understand Karma wrongly. It simply means action and consequence of action. So, karma is the action that is done by body, by speech and by thought. These actions have consequences. Nothing happens by accident. We usually do not understand the reason that may come from a previous life. We do not remember. We are born in a family, in a country, in circumstances that come from a reason from before.

It is not by accident that we are born in a particular country, that we are a boy or a girl, that we are children of particular parents. Everything has its own reason. What is the reason? The real reason is that you have been born in order for you to learn your karmic lessons, for you to grow. To grow means that you understand the meaning of your life, and you understand that everything that you must experience has a reason. Then you will learn from this experience that is your karma. The word Karma does not mean anything negative, just simply means the law of action and reaction, action, and consequence of action. What you sow is what you reap. This is a universal law.

The other thing we need to understand is that with the law of karma is the law of retribution which means if you do something wrong, you will receive a punishment. Also, there is the law of compensation that means that everything is inter-related and in the big picture, everything is perfect the way it is even though we might not think so.

Karma comes from desire

Where does Karma come from? It comes from desire, where does desire come from? Desire comes from ignorance.  In ignorance, we fail to see that we have everything, that we are pure consciousness and that we are the source of everything. We think that this limited life in this body is our self and we think satisfying our desires in this life is the goal. But we do not realize that we cannot satisfy any desire because desire never stops, you satisfy one desire, another one comes, then another one will come.

That is how you go around, around, around, in that circle of Karma. Karma is depicted as a circle, a wheel, so this life is to experience the result of the desire from past but when you live this life, you react and then you create new desire, and then you must be reborn again to experience or to enjoy or to pay your debt. You constantly create new desire, new karma, that is how it works.

The way of liberation: Paying karmic debts and not creating new

So, the Yogi attempts to not have any desire because he/she knows that it is endless, so they only focus on paying up the karmic debt and at the same time they focus on not creating new karmic debts. In the same manner, with money, you must pay up your debts, but if you keep borrowing more money, then you will have new debts. The smart way is slowly clear up the old debts without creating new debt so that you can be free.

See life differently from the point of view of karma

When you experience the karma it is always difficult. The reason why it is difficult is because you have to go deep inside to understand yourself. Usually, we do not want to do that, we want to blame, we want to run away, and we react. By doing so, we cannot learn the lessons that we are supposed to learn.

There are people that have difficulty to face their karmic challenges and are afraid to live up to their potential due to fears. Yoga described avoidance as coming from the fear of pains and attraction as the dwelling on pleasures. Some people want to avoid life and avoid facing themselves. Some people want life to be only pleasurable. However, is it possible to avoid life?  Is it possible to have only pleasure without pain? Swami Sivananda said that pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin. If you are going to experience life then you know life will bring suffering.

Courage is the most important quality, courage to face your own karma. You know that by suffering, you will understand the root causes of the suffering and then you will realize your character, your personality, your habit and this realization and awareness will set you free from repeating the same mistake . Humility will help you to accept things as they are and not the way you would like them to be. Patience and perseverance are also other valuable qualities to allow you to slowly change your character, see everything as an opportunity, and stop blaming.

Awakening from our spiritual ignorance , breaking through the chain of karma

Spiritual ignorance is like this. Spiritual ignorance comes from that false ego identity that is not perfect but fails to see that it is not perfect and always thinks that it is perfect. That is why there are many kinds of yoga that go to the root cause of this phenomenon, the false ego identity. In particular, Karma Yoga, practiced seriously in daily life, helps us to escape the wheel of birth and death. Karma Yoga explains to us what karma is and shows us the way to finish the karma and to find happiness and peace and not always go around and around in this life completely immersed in the struggle of life.

Remember what we really want is absolute happiness

Everyone needs to be conscious of what one really wants. What we really want is happiness absolute, what we really want is freedom from birth and death.  Everyone wants not to be limited, to be everywhere, to be fulfilled.  Everyone wants to know that happiness that is not contradicted, that does not require you to think too much. Isn’t it true?  people who think too much, are they happy? No. In fact, thinking correctly is the way to liberation, but negative thinking leads you to make mistakes and endlessly trying to correct the mistakes you have made.  The wise person is the one who understands that “I don’t want anything. I just want true happiness”.

Our attachments are our obstacles to happiness

THE REASON WHY we cannot get out of this because we are attached.  We are attached to our own thinking, our own feeling, our relationships, and our work. The key word here is attachment. Think about this, if you are attached, you cannot be free and you cannot be liberated.  Why?  Because of the word attachment itself. When you are attached, you cannot be free. Who forces you to be attached if you do not want to be attached?

Your right thinking, your right opinion slowly slowly helps you to get out of yourself.  Right thinking means that you are detached, or you are free from any attachment. Your happiness at that time does not come from your emotion. You understand that your happiness does not come from your thinking.  You understand that your happiness does not come from any relationships. You understand that your happiness does not come from any work you do. You understand that happiness does not come from any kind of special karmic situation.  

Remember the True Self

Before you were attached to this or that karma but now you understand that happiness doesn’t come from this, and you really want to be free. You then become attached to your own Self. It means that you no longer make a mistake between the means and the goal.  The goal is to find happiness and peace, the means is to be mindful, to be aware of your experience of this and that so that you realize your mistake while experiencing your character and your reactive habits. The way to be free is the detachment from what you experience so that you can always remember the true Self.  

The goal of life is not to experience life. Life is just the means, not the goal. To avoid entanglement, you need to really understand very well what freedom is. Freedom from what? Freedom from the causes of suffering. You would then take yourself very seriously to try to disentangle yourself step-by-step.  You don’t expect anybody to free you. You know you would experience the attraction and the pangs of separation, but you are not attached to either.  The wise person always lives in the present, he/she does not live in the past or the future. Why? Because the past and the future brings a lot of thinking. The past will bring thoughts of regrets; the future will bring thoughts of worry. In the present, you have peace.

Think less and immerse yourself in the present

It is said the peace you have in the present is like the space in between two thoughts, for example when you repeat your mantra using the mala bead. At the same time, you channel your thinking by pronouncing the divine sacred name one bead at the time, and at the same time, you imagine you don’t have any other thought in between. Eventually, the beads disappear, the mantras disappear, and there is only the subject. In the same manner, you see the movie screen at the same time you witness all kinds of images of the movies projected on the screen.

If you do not find peace in this film, in this movie, you can always create what you think to be better, may be a more romantic story, may be a more beautiful movie, may be with nice landscapes, may be with a perfect beautiful person etc… you would think that maybe I will be very happy in the next movie but then the next movie will change and then the beautiful film will become some kind of nightmare, full of evil things. The negative is alternating with the positive, there is no movie that will bring you to lasting happiness.  No story whatsoever will bring you peace because you always create a new story imagining all kinds of best scenario.  

Maybe I can be at the beach with my best friend then I will be really very happy, maybe I can be a princess or a queen with her prince, maybe I can be famous with hundreds of thousands subscribers to my social media account … may be I can be that skillful person perfecting my art in this or that. You can go through many many lifetimes, many different scenarios, but you will be always revolving in the same imagination of your mind. That is why it is said that you satisfy one karma, and you create new debts. You create new circumstances you believe that this would be better but that’s how your ignorance goes always, finding fault always. What you need to understand is no circumstance, no story would be better.

No happiness in this world would be perfect because it comes from your mind and imagination. You live in the mountain and you want to live by the ocean, you live in the East and you want to go to the West, you are a male and you would like to become a female, and the person who is female would like to become a male person, the old person wants to become young, the young person wants to become old… You will never find perfection because it’s all creations of your mind. There is always some greed and ignorance.  The idea is not to find any fault with the present,  not to worry,  not to regret, but really try to detach always, detach from what you experience. 

This is called karma yoga. Karma yoga means detachment from what you have to experience, detachment from all relationships, detachment from your mind, detachment from your emotions, from your circumstances. Be the witness, not jumping in the movie and becoming the actor. Slowly the mind will be able to be detached and you will be able to be free from its illusion when you live this life.

Selflessness is the key

The secret, the trick in Karma Yoga is the spirit of selflessness. Selflessness means that you don’t want anything because if you want something you will be stuck in the wheel.

You will be stuck with it from one thing to 2, 3, 4 things. Always you will be desiring perfection, you will be suffering from dissatisfaction, you would think that God is not seeing my need, God is not fair, my loved ones do not understand me and so on.

However, the most important thing is not to have the ego, to be selfless. Not having ego means not having any attachment to the idea of yourself, what you like and what you not like, the idea that you like something and you dislike somebody else.  That is called selflessness, the life that is not depending on the ego.

Liberation comes with doing your duty with detachment

When you liberate yourself, you are not entangling,  you have a bigger picture of life, of yourself and you walk on the path of liberation that is called karma yoga.  Karma yoga here is the path of selflessness. It means you still live this life, but you live this life in a nonattached manner. What does that mean?  it means that you don’t want anything, you just want to do your duty.  In any situation you just want to do your duty and you do the best you can with the attitude of detachment.  This is the secret of Karma yoga to liberate yourself. However, pay attention, do not do somebody else’s duty.

For example, I see this person, she’s not working very well so I jump in and I do her work.  It’s not good, why? because I am doing the duty of somebody else.  My attachment creates this desire to do things. Why?  Because I think that I am better, I do things better; I become attached to this person, I want to do her job thinking that I will be helping her, but I am doing her job and I don’t allow her to have the chance to release herself from the karma. On the contrary, my karma will become heavier because of my attachment.  I need to understand differently and compassionately that this lady is suffering in some way and it’s good for her because she’s learning the lesson of detachment.

If you have the duty to remind the person or to teach the person then this is fine. You will see that most of the time, people will not listen because when people are deep in their karma, they will not be able to listen to helpful advice, coming from you or from someone else. Then you have the temptation to jump in and do all kinds of things, so you are the one that create problems for yourself. So always remember that you need to liberate yourself, that you are the other person indeed, that you want the other person to liberate themselves.

However, they will liberate themselves in due time, when they truly understand their karma and when they truly realize their mistake. You cannot liberate them; you can give them advice, but you cannot liberate anybody else.  Even when you give advice, you have to give advice only when it is your duty to do so, not giving advice to everybody, when not being asked or when it’s not your duty.

Yoga is skill in action

The Bhagavad Gita says Yoga is skill in action. That is the teaching. Skill in doing your duty without likes and dislikes. You do action and at the same time it looks like you are not doing anything. You are involved but it looks like you are not attached.  This is not easy, that’s why scripture said that it is a skill. How to live your life, to love and at the same time not be attached? The key is always you have to remember that the goal of life is liberation from suffering so when you understand this very clearly, you understand that nobody can help you.  This is very difficult because everyone has the expectation that somebody else will free them, somebody else will help them.

Is it not true that when people are young, growing up, so many people suffer because you think that your father and mother would save you? And the father and the mother also have the expectation that you will save them one day. But then you realize that your father and mother live their own karma, and you have to liberate yourself on your own.  You realize that they cannot save you, they have to save themselves.  When you understand this, you will very carefully follow your own karma and liberate yourself. Of course, the guideline is you have to do your duty without attachment. So, if you are a student, you would have to do the duty of the student without expectation. In the same manner, you learn your lessons of self love.

If you suffer from rejection for example, your karma is to learn the lesson of self sufficiency, self-love, but if you have expectation that this person or that person should love you as you love them, and then you blame them, you are not getting the lesson which is the lesson of self sufficiency. You then cannot be free from this tendency of dependency and of expectation and will carry this seed of karma to the next life. It is not easy to be relieved from karma.

Most people will live their life, not being able to release themselves from karma, because they always have this expectation that somebody else will do it for them.  You think somebody else will love you, you blame your relationships, you blame your father/mother, you live your whole life never asking yourself the right question. You get angry, suffer from resentment, you blame others, compare yourself with others and suffer. You do not really see your own attachment to your ego and your own ignorance.

Meditation in action:

The meaning of Bhagavad Gita about “skill in action” is the teaching about meditation in action. You meditate on your life while you are acting and when you live your life, you meditate. You understand that life is meditation, and you understand that you need to really understand what your life is, so that you can be free, and you always remember that in mind that you want to be free. You remember that happiness absolute is from within, happiness absolute is what you are looking for and this life is the opportunity to pay up your karmic debt.  You understand that your life is a result of your past karma, that attachment to the result of your past karma is a mistake and you want to take all opportunities to release yourself from the cycle  of births and deaths.

4 important things to remember:

To summarize, the most important thing to remember from this talk is what is detachment. The 2nd important thing to understand is the words “doing your duty without attachment to results”. The number 3rd important idea is the spirit of selflessness and renunciation, you don’t want anything, you don’t want any benefit, you just want to be detached from everything you want to do your duty, you do not expect anything from your work, you just want freedom and happiness.  You don’t run away from your duty, but you are not attached to it.

Last but not least, you understand that you are the one that can free yourself and nobody can do it for you. Even with the teacher, the teacher can teach you all these things so you can have some clarity in order to apply the teaching in your life, but the teacher cannot do it for you.  If you are hungry, you have to eat for yourself, if you are thirsty, you have to drink, nobody else can really help you.

Please read more the Bhagavad Gita and become expert, a Karma Yogi skillful in action! 

Om shanti

Swami Sitaramananda is a senior acharya of the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centers and is director of the Sivananda Ashram Vedanta Yoga Farm, California and the Sivananda Yoga Resort and Training Center, Vietnam.  She is acharya of China, Taiwan, and Japan as well. Swamiji is the organizer and teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Health Educator Training (SYHET) program, an 800-hour program on yoga therapy, accredited by the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT).

Swami Sitaramananda is the author of “Essentials of Yoga Practice and Philosophy” (translated in Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Russian), “Positive Thinking Manual”, “Karma Yoga Manual”, “Meditation Manual”, “Swamiji Said, a collection of teachings by Swami Vishnu” in His Own Words. She is responsible for the Vietnamese translation of “Completed Illustrated Book of Yoga” (CIBY) and “Meditation & Mantras” by Swami Vishnu. Many of her video & audio lectures on Yoga life, philosophy, and psychology as well as articles and webinars can be found on this website.

Swami Sita is an ardent supporter of the integration of the Vedic sciences such as Vastu, Jyotish, Ayurveda, Yoga and Vedanta. She is an international teacher of the Sivananda Yoga Teachers’ Training Courses and Advanced Yoga teachers’ Training courses, as well as Meditation and Vedanta & Silence Courses both in Sivananda Ashrams in Vietnam and in Grass Valley, CA.

Yoga guidelines for thinking and feeling

Yoga guidelines for thinking and feeling

You are what you think and you are not what you think

Introduction:

When I told this topic to people, people shook head, laughed, wheeled their fingers around by their temples showing signs that they are not understanding why you are what you think and you are not what you think.  

During this webinar we will:

  1. Understand what thought is, and how it works
  2. Breathe and relax and Visualize Self
  3. The 3 levels of mind – how to move from lower mind to higher mind
  4. Practice of conversion of thoughts
  5. Practice of cultivating virtues and eradicating vices

How thought works?

When a thought wave arises in the mind, if you don’t feed into it, the wave falls back into the ocean of consciousness. The wave does not have a reality in itself.  It only has reality as far as you keep feeding it. That is, we name the wave and give it meaning. Feed it, and the thought becomes more solid, and gains more power, and has reality.

We have a choice. We can make these thoughts (whatever they are) the reality, or we can make blissful thoughts reality. Yogis look at the thoughts to understand them, then don’t feed into the thought (give it energy), and let it go. They also can transform the thoughts from darkness to light.

Evolution of the mind

The mind has different levels and functions. The mind is not ourselves. Our thoughts and feelings are not ourselves. We have the tendency to repeat familiar thoughts and feelings and lose ourselves in the thoughts or emotions.

We need to learn to navigate our thoughts and emotions. If we know how to develop our own mind, we will know how to accelerate our process of spiritual evolution. Do we want to evolve? If we ask this question, most of us would say no because they do not know what evolution means. Evolution means coming closer to our core self, our blissful self, satisfying the purpose of our life, being closer to the truth, being truly happy…  that happiness and fulfillment of our soul that last no matter what happens outside.

The Evolution of our mind is directly related to our connection with our blissful consciousness, our Atman.

What is the Atman? Who am I? what is consciousness?

The Self is called the Atman – the Truth about the Self is what we have been looking for all our life. It is our inner motivation. Each person will resonate with different idea about the Atman. You need to choose one word, one qualification and think about it. There are three practices 1. Listening to the scriptures 2. Contemplation, thinking deeply, 3. Realization by direct experience. Now we are listening and contemplating.

  • Vedanta philosophy and quantum physics talked about consciousness as the ground of being.
  • Brahman (or Atman) is absolute pure consciousness, it is satchitananda
  • existence absolute-beyond ages of the body, beyond birth and death
  • knowledge absolute-consciousness, awareness, not thinking automatically, not knowledge coming from the mind.
  • and bliss absolute-complete fulfillment, no desire, no frustration, no complain, happiness without condition, feeling perfection, beyond emotions.
  • Atman gives light and beauty to the universe – it is your own consciousness full of light and beauty that gives beauty to the appearances and the manifestations of nature and its beautiful forms or beings. If you change consciousness, that which was beautiful lost its beauty. Beauty is not depending on the attributes of the body. People have suffered a lot from disillusion from chasing after external beauty.
  • Atman gives intelligence to the mind, shining through the intelligence that you attribute to people. In reality it is the atman that is intelligence shining through.
  • It is unbroken awareness, unbroken sense of Self and of happiness, not functioning automatically out of habit
  • neither inside nor outside, dwelling within, inside inner perception and outer perception of senses, everywhere. The meditator has half eye open, half closed. He or she is living in the world and out of the world in one consciousness only, beyond all conditioning. That is why a person practices to be the same inside and outside to be close to the atman. They would say what they feel, feel what they say and do what they say and feel. They are always the same, independent of where they are, and with who they are.
  • beyond space-time, beyond the mind which is being conditioned by space and time. The more that you will be able to function the same way in all conditions, you come closer to the atman.
  • non local, non material
  • eternally present, it is the truth that is always there, either you are happy or unhappy. Reference to the book “The power of now” of Eckhard Tolle. What ever the problem that you have, just come back to the present, the problem will dissolve by itself. All problems can only come from the past that is also projected in the future. The more we live in the present, the more we come close to the atman.
  • it is the subject, without who nothing exists, it is the master, the boss, the perceiver, not the object of perception. It is the consciousness awareness that sees
  • The atman is not the object, not limited, indescribable, therefore can apply neti neti to refute the superimposed ideas of the mind, after which what remains is the Atman. By being not the object, the atman can not be dependent on something or somebody else. For example you feel valued when somebody praise you and you feel bad when somebody criticize you. At that time you need to come back to yourself and remember that you are the subject. Even when you are serving somebody and try to please somebody, you are aware that you are doing so, and not lose yourself. When you do karma yoga, you have to be conscious of what you are doing. For example you wash dishes but not aiming to finish the task of washing dishes. Instead, you are aware and awake while doing dishes. It is not what you do but the attitude in which you are doing that qualifies this action as liberating karma yoga. In this way the same action makes you a servant or a master.
  • all pervading, everywhere. You can not feel lonely if you realize that.
  • unbounded, free, unlimited, therefore you can not be confined to a place, a relationship, or a condition. In quarantine or lockdown, it will be helpful for people to remember that they are free in truth and not dependent. Sky is the limit when you feel consciousness expanded.
  • unchanged, therefore no grief or surprise or disillusioned when things change (people’s mind and emotions, our own body, our habits, way of living) because it is not true
  • unmoved, stable, giving sense of security
  • Atman is all possibilities, all coming from Atman’s will, so no need to worry
  • undefinable, ungraspable
  • stainless, pure, perfect, not to be found in the relative world which is the mind’s creation and by nature is imperfect.
  • perfect, perceivable through silence not through the mind or emotions
  • beyond attributes,
  • beyond the gunas-  qualities, tamas (darkness), rajas (action), sattva (purity)
  • beyond duality, split, here-there, in-out, this-that, high-low, white-black. No need to go anywhere just have to look within.
  • eternal, not ephemeral
  • having no equal, is one, nothing to compare to, to compete with. That is why do not compare yourself with others.
  • transcendent, transcending the limitations of the mind
  • supreme reality,
  • supreme truth,
  • self luminous, like the sun, does not need anything to give it light
  • fully illumined, bright. If you are close to the atman you feel bright.
  • fully enlightened,
  • self existent, does not need anything to show that it exists, so not lonely
  • undifferentiated, no quality
  • without names and forms, beyond names and forms
  • without parts, cannot be divided
  • transcending appearances which come and go, so we need to see things through the eyes of the soul and avoid disillusion
  • pure love, essence of love, behind all kinds of love, beyond more love or less love. It is 100% love and all the time.
  • unity of consciousness, where all connect, beyond conflicts, beyond differences of wealth (have and have not), culture, gender, race, religion.
  • oneness,
  • beyond action, no need to do anything to find it or to perfect anything
  • aware of ego, sense of separate “I” which manipulates and plays different games
  • aware of mind and emotions, which are not the rulers. Atman is the inner ruler detecting all the changes in the emotions.
  • the knower, it is the subject knowing everything
  • the ruler, the boss
  • the absolute
  • It is compared to the Sun, giving light and life to all,
  • Independent, not dependent on anything
  • and it is the source of all pranas, source of all lives, source of consciousness. When you are closer to the Atman you have more prana, unlimited prana, when you are away from it you have less prana. If you don’t have prana you are far from the atman.
  • Thoughts are waves that rise and fall in this infinite ocean of consciousness.
  • Therefore, it is said you are not what you think.
  • You are the observer, you are not the doer.
  • the witness of your thoughts.
  • You are not your thoughts.
  • All meditators arrive to the same conclusion. They arrive to the experience that the meditator, the object of meditation and the act of meditation become one.
  • The knower, the known and the knowing become one.
  • To answer the question: is consciousness evolving? The answer is no. Consciousness is unchangeable. In fact, it is the veils of consciousness that are changing, being thinned out – as our mind evolves- and this gives us a glimpse of the Light which is Consciousness.

So how to train the mind and unveil the Self?

How to move the mind from lower to higher functioning and be closer to our bliss and truth? We will use the theory of the 3 levels of the mind in order for us to know how to navigate our minds.

3%20levels%20of%20mind%20triangles.jpg

1. The subconscious mind:

  • the base of the triangle, the iceberg is the Subconscious Mind – lower mind
    It is the first phase of the mind.  It is the basic mind from which the conscious mind emerges. It is below the conscious mind; it is controllable by the Conscious Mind.
  • The subconscious mind consists of the unknown, thoughts
    that are HIDDEN, SUBMERGED thoughts;
  • it is very POWERFUL and governs our life 95% of the time.
  • The subconscious mind is the storehouse of PAST experiences
  • and governs many of the AUTOMATIC functions of the body such as breathing, heartbeat, etc.  It also stores the LEARNED EXPERIENCES such as locomotive skills, academic skills, social skills, memories of experiences.  Like a car, you can press cruise control on the highway and be on autopilot.  You can let go.
  • The mind is made of karmic patterns, samskaras. Most of the time we are on AUTOPILOT, following the automatic commands of the subconscious mind.  All the PATTERNS , HABITS of the mind are formed in the subconscious mind.  We talked about KARMIC patterns, karmic tendencies. We can refer to the astrological vedic chart which shows the karmic tendencies through the disposition of the planets (Sun, moon, mars, mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Rahu Ketu).
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Example: the mental patterns in 12 areas of karma

Moon in 1st (self concerned) moon in 2 h (concerned about money, food), moon in third house (concerned about public relations, arts), moon in 4th (likes to love), moon in fifth (likes to learn), moon in sixth (likes conflicts), moon in seventh (likes partner), moon in 8th (likes psychic world), moon in ninth (likes dharma, teacher), moon in ten house (likes to work), moon in 11th (likes gains), moon in twelve house (likes liberation). Other patterns: Moon alone (isolation, feeling lonely), moon mars (fast emotions, action oriented), moon Saturn (introvert), moon Jupiter (generous, broad vision) moon rahu (delusional), moon ketu (detached), moon sat mars (perfectionistic), moon hemmed (tense), full moon (empathetic), exalted moon (lots of emotions), moon debilitated (narrow mind, attached)

  • The subconscious mind is instinctive. It is the seat of our  ANIMAL INSTINCTS:
    Instincts are fast, strong, powerful and irresistible.

Survival – sometimes you don’t understand how people survive, they live in certain conditions, it’s incredible, but you know that the instinct of survival is alive and strong.  We will do what is necessary to survive.  The way to transcend the survival instinct is to offer others food, transcending the impulse to feed yourself first according to your hunger.

Procreation – we find a mate to reproduce the body.  The sexual (procreative) instinct is second after breathing.  Think about this, it governs your life.  Because it’s in the subconscious mind, it means that you are not aware of it, but it is governing your thoughts and actions.  You want to dress in nice clothes, have nice hair, etc., all to find a mate. 

Herd – follow the crowd.  We don’t want to stick out.  If the crowd says this is the way to behave, then you follow because you want to fit in.  You may not know how to fit in, but you just want to fit in, i.e., you are vegetarian, others are not.  Then you feel very strange, not at ease.  Because our instinct is pulling us to be part of the group.  We transcend the herd instinct with satsang, being in the company of the wise who seek the Truth of their own Self, not depending on others to feel safe and secure.

Territorial – we want to have our own kingdom, like the dog that marks his territory, this is my area, then they growl at us.  Emotions associated with the territorial instinct include fear and jealousy.  Animals that act out of their survival instinct compete with each other to find a mate; have a leader; 2 of them fight to establish who is in charge.  Some animals learn how to cooperate.  Human beings can move beyond the territorial instinct through cooperation and community.

  • The subconscious is emotional
    It is the seat of our LOWER EMOTIONS: anger, fear, greed, hatred, jealousy, envy, hatred, lust. These powerful emotions feel strong and lead us on the roller coaster.  Emotional impulses are imperative to us and difficult to resist.  To function in the conscious mind means we have to resist the emotions, the herding instinct, territorial instinct, procreative instinct, etc., resist our habits, to be strong in the present.

  • The subconscious is the seat of habits. Make use of good habits but do not be victim to habits
    All thought patterns (habits) are lodged in the subconscious.  Habits of waking up at a certain time, habit of walking, talking, meditation hours, eating hours.  These are all habits that we can create in our subconscious mind.  Create positive habits and you will not be victim to habits. 
    The conscious mind is in charge, able to adapt to changing circumstances as needed. We Learn by Trial and Error.Errors are stepping-stones to success.  Awareness means to pay attention, to be conscious.  Awareness means we make the effort to learn from our mistakes. 
    Examples: Learning how to drive; A baby learning how to walk; Learning headstand

  • Using autosuggestion: The subconscious mind is your 100 secretaries
    Like a computer with hidden software programmed to run a certain way, the subconscious mind can be your servant, just like having one-hundred secretaries working for you.  For example, you can use autosuggestion to wake up at a certain time.  You need to remove the old software when it becomes obsolete, otherwise it can run against your will.

2. The Conscious Mind

  • Conscious mind is our capacity to make choices.
  • We make choices in the present. 
  • The conscious mind guides the subconscious mind; that is its role.

The conscious mind is more mature, closer to the truth.  The conscious mind is higher than the emotions and the instincts. The subconscious needs to be guided by the conscious mind.
The subconscious mind needs to be guided by the conscious mind, like a child submitting his will to a more mature elder.  The conscious mind’s decisions supersede the lower mind’s wants, being itself inspired by the super-conscious mind.

  • Conscious mind uses intellect.The conscious mind is our reasoning power. The conscious mind makes decisions by analyzing the pros and cons of any given situation. One needs to develop one’s faculty of reasoning.  If you do not use it, you lose it.  We need to develop our discrimination and detachment.
  • For the person not on their journey toward self-transformation, the conscious mind is not often used.  We function automatically throughout the day and think very little.
  • Intellect can make mistakes
    Even though more reliable and superior to the emotional mind, the intellect is limited and can make mistakes.  It cannot perceive the Truth and is limited by time, space and causation. 
    A finite instrument cannot perceive the Infinite.
  • Self-awareness and ego
    With the development of the conscious mind comes the faculty of self-awareness.  Self-awareness is knowing one’s self as a separate ego – not to be mistaken as True Self Awareness which knows One’s Self as One in all apparent names and forms.  A conscious mind that has not been purified can be egoistic.
  • The conscious mind is pulled by the subconscious mind
    The conscious mind can be usurped by the lower mind.  The intellect can be colored by the wrapping of the emotions.  This is how we make excuses and rationalize our decisions.
  • Self-enquiry is to use the intellect to discriminate between real and not real
    That is why one needs to question one’s true motivation and remind oneself of one’s true purpose.
  • The conscious mind helps us to own the present
    To be aware is to feel empowered and alive in the present.  The subconscious mind lives in the past.  Dwelling in the past causes us to feel victimized and powerless.

“The present is superior to the past”

Swami Sivananda


“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness from which it was created.”  

Albert Einstein

Dwelling in the mental patterns of the past can never solve the problem.  Only by coming to the present do we free ourselves from the past and open up to all possibilities, where the solutions to our problems lie.

  • Live in the eternal present

The past feels secure.
The present feels difficult to grasp.
The future is uncertain.
In fact, the past is dead.
The present is Real.
The future does not have to be a replica of the past.
If you hold the present you hold the future.
If you hold the past you are victim to the future.

3. Super-conscious – intuitive higher mind

3%20levels%20of%20mind%20triangles.jpg
  • The superconscious mind (sometimes called supramental) is the seat of intuition.
  • Intuition allows us to know in a flash and does not make mistakes.  Intuition comes from a sattvic mind and is not an impulse which comes from the emotional, lower mind – even though they look alike.
  • The super conscious mind is warm, nice, immediate, powerful and will not make mistake, being closer to the truth. The conscious mind can be perceived as cold by the emotional mind which desires feelings of warmth.  When the conscious mind works in cooperation with the super-conscious mind, it will gain approval, and the subconscious mind will calm down. 
  • The conscious mind takes time to think properly.  The intuitive mind is immediate. However, we can make mistake and go to the subconscious mind instead which is powerful, fast, and instinctive. When we don’t have time, it is easier to go with the subconscious mind.  Better to take time and think properly than to make things worse. 
  • The super-conscious, intuitive mind has feeling, higher feeling of pure love and unity.  It is luminous, warm, it considers everything, transcends time and space, and is closer to the truth.  To make a conscious decision, we need to consider all the facts.  Intuitive thinking knows past, present and future; it knows right away.
  • Intuitive feelings are different than emotional impulses even though they act alike, fast, feel strong, and we cannot resist. If we follow the emotional impulse, it will lead us down, we’ll be let down eventually.  But intuitive thinking will lift us up, and we will not suffer from our decision.
  • The subconscious mind tries to pull the conscious mind down to use for its advantage.
    By contrast, the super-conscious mind inspires the conscious mind, pulling it up. Most of our efforts are to keep the inspiration going, to give us energy, prana, joy, to do good things, to keep the inspiration.
  • How do you get the inspiration if the subconscious mind is too loud? Through satsang, association with people who are inspired; or through scripture, to give us direction, a voice of the Truth. 
  • The super-conscious mind inspires the intellect upward.  It is correct and warm at the same time.  Pure love is correct and warm.
  • Intuition is universal, connecting the mind to its source of wisdom.  The lower mind will act selfishly to fulfill its desires.  The intuition goes beyond all reasoning and yet is not crazy like unbridled emotions.
  • The super-conscious is not the Absolute Truth even though it is higher and is more trustworthy than the intellect.  It is our higher faculty to access knowledge that is to be developed.

4. Navigating the 3 minds – The Yogi’s Journey

The yogi’s journey is an inversion of the triangle.  [Show inverted triangle picture.]  

The yogi endeavors to become aware of the contents of the subconscious mind, to be guided by the intuition.  The yogi keeps the automatic functions to a minimum and is no longer guided by instinct, emotions, past programming and likes and dislikes.  Using the conscious mind, the yogi thins out the veils of the lower mind to see the Reality, the Truth.

Develop 3 levels of mind to accelerate the process of self development

In conclusion the aspirant . . .

  • Develops awareness
  • Exercises reasoning
  • Surrender one’s will to a higher will
  • Overcomes unconscious and base instincts
  • Practices consciously Sadhana to accelerate the process of moving from darkness to light

5. What happens during meditation?

1. Subconscious imprints are cleaned up. Problems are resolved by themselves.

2. Conscious mind is activated and becomes clear.

3. Super-conscious can operate – intuition dawns.

6. Beyond the 3 Minds

Beyond the 3 minds is the Atman, the Absolute Consciousness, the ground of being, the pure, unborn and eternal.

Existence Absolute
Knowledge Absolute
Bliss Absolute

  • Exercises of thought conversion (from lower mind to higher mind), and from negative to positive mind, from tamasic rajasic to sattvic pure mind.  By thinking about something, you will become. However, you are not your thoughts so you can change your thoughts to the opposite. In general you need to counteract the tendency of the mind. The more you do this exercise, the more you will become expert in manipulation of your thoughts from negative to positive and eventually your sattvic mind will be able to reflect your true nature. Eventually all the angularities of your mind will become smooth. That is why we live in community so our mind will friction with each other and one day we will detach from the mind.

Positive words to think about

Thinking about these words can eventually lead you to the light: this is what you want your mind to be

Happy: not permanent happiness but general disposition of the mind.
Joyful: general disposition to be joyful will give you more prana
Healthy: do not think about disease but think about health
Loving: towards everybody, it is the quality of your heart
Compassionate:
Knowledge: to learn, to become curious about knowledge to get out of ignorance
Wise: in order to choose the right response when face with conflicts
Upwards: feeling to move upwards
Expanded: feeling to be big and great
Selfless: not egoistic
Disciplined: in a positive manner, i.e. do the right things at the right time
Uplifted: feeling light 
Light: instead of heavy
Forgiving: not holding any grudge towards anybody
Wholesome: feeling together, feeling oneness
armonious:
Peaceful
Creative
Productive
United
Thoughtful: instead of being indifferent and insensitive
Sensitive
Empathy
Courageous: very important quality, it allows you to change
Flexible: adaptable
Flowing: floating with life instead of being stagnant
Growing: going upwards
Devotional: love for the highest in your heart
Faith: it will make you peaceful and secure, opposite of doubt
Focused: it helps you to be present
United: not separated towards anybody
Strong: just being yourself not abusive but anchored in your self
Calm:
Equanimity: evenness of mind, not up and down and high and low
Tranquil:
Serene:
Forbearing: be able to bear and keeping calm in difficulties
Honest
Content: not desirous, restless
Blissful:
Truthful
Independent: self-reliant
Surrendered: having faith, relaxed, no need to control everything
Forward: feeling of moving forward
Bright
Soft spoken: do say things but nicely
Non Violent: ahimsa
Respectful
Austere: not indulgent
Detached: opposite of attached  
Vigilant:
Clear mind
Even mind
Adaptable
Beautiful: see beauty, feel beautiful
Connected: connected to Self, to the universe, connected to others to feel strong
Relaxed: not stressed
Moderate: not extreme
Balanced
Considerate
Dispassionate: detached while being fulfilled, does not mean being bored

Words to convert to opposite

Opposite of Unhappy— happy
Opposite of Depressed— joyful, energetic
Opposite of Unhealthy — healthy
Opposite of Hatred— loving. To completely avoid using word hatred.
Opposite of Judgmental, which is thinking out of ego— accepting, tolerant
Opposite of Chaotic— harmonious
Opposite of Undisciplined— disciplined
Opposite of Lazy: enthusiastic
Opposite of Slothful: caring
Opposite of Unrighteous: righteous
Opposite of Careless: caring
Opposite of Angry: being content, letting go of expectation
Opposite of Revengeful: forgiving
Opposite of Restless: peaceful
Opposite of Fearful: courageous
Opposite of Anxious: having faith
Opposite of Worried: having faith
Opposite of Shy: self-confident
Opposite of Doubtful: having faith
Opposite of being stuck: feeling flowing
Opposite of Stagnant: felling progress
Opposite of Irresponsible: responsible
Opposite of Jealous: accepting own karma, accepting self
Opposite of Envious: be more realistic about who you are, content
Opposite of Skeptical: having faith
Opposite of Proud: humble
Opposite of Abusive: respectful
Opposite of Frustrated: accepting
Opposite of Irritable: patient
Opposite of Arrogant: humble
Opposite of Selfish: selfless
Opposite of feeling Limited: feeling expanded, unlimited
Opposite of Rigid: being flowing, flexible, adaptable
Opposite of feeling Downward: feeling upwards
Opposite of Indulgent: disciplined
Opposite of being Addictive: being disciplined
Opposite of Crazy: orderly, grounded
Opposite of Self doubt: having faith in Self
Opposite of Self hatred: Self-love
Opposite of Spiteful: forgiving
Opposite of Dishonest: honest
Opposite of Manipulative: straightforward
Opposite of Lustful: pure
Opposite of Unstable: stable
Opposite of Attached: detached
Opposite of Possessive: generous, sharing
Opposite of Self righteous: self-surrendered
Opposite of Contempt: respect, humble
Opposite of Vicious: considerate, ethical
Opposite of Sinful: dharmic
Opposite of Perverted: pure, good
Opposite of Procrastinating: do it and surrender results
Opposite of Pessimistic: optimistic
Opposite of Feeling Lack: feeling fulfilled
Opposite of Naïve: realistic
Opposite of Inconsiderate: considerate
Opposite of Weak: strong
Opposite of Feeling Empty: feeling fulfilled
Opposite of Desirous: content
Opposite of Greed: generous
Opposite of Exaggerating: being truthful
Opposite of Imbalanced: balanced
Opposite of Inconsistent: consistent
Opposite of Wasteful: conservative
Opposite of being Mean: being generous
Opposite of Stingy: generous
Opposite of being Sensual: being austere, turning inwards
Opposite of Worldly: going inwards

8. Exercises of thought cultivation: eradicate vices and cultivation of virtues

Monday: detachment / attachment
Tuesday: courage/ fears, anxieties
Wednesday: compassion/ judgmental
Thursday: faith/ doubts
Friday: charity/ greed
Saturday: patience/ impatience
Sunday: forgiveness/ narrow-mindedness
January: austerity/ indulgence
February: generosity/ stinginess
March: vigilance/ slothfulness
April: pure love / lustful
May: creativity/ stagnant
June: forgiveness/ vengeful
July: equanimity/ bias
August: serenity/ disturbed
September:  Straightforwardness/ hypocrisy
October: adaptability/ rigidity
November: self discipline/ distracted
December: charity, selflessness / egoism

Breathe and relax! Live in the world and out of the world!

Breathe and relax! Live in the world and out of the world!

A satsang on line with swami Sitaramananda

05/10/2020

Preparation:

The topic of today is highly philosophical, yet practical. It is essential to understand it so we know what to do to be healthy and free. Please be ready during this presentation to be able to do 6 practical breathing and relaxation lessons. Make sure you have space to lie down, and that your room be ventilated.

1. Lie down in sarvasana posture and learn to breathe abdominally, without pillow or with pillow. Get a pillow ready, the more it is heavy it is better.

2. sit up either on chair or cross legged on the ground and learn to breathe and relax sitting up.

3. while sitting up, learn Kapalabati breathing (cleansing of the lungs) .

4. learn basic Anuloma Viloma basic, alternate nostril breath, without retention and with retention.

5. lie down again, and learn to breathe and relax  along with positive affirmations. 6. Last, learn tense and release and complete guided relaxation.

Why the topic of today?

The truth these days of Corona virus pandemic is we loose ourselves and our minds drifted in confusion. We are stressed and we have tendency to not breathing correctly. We  panicked and reacted this way or another.  The news of the world took our well being away, thought by thought, breath by breath. We are caught up in the alarming and contradictory news. The world seems to be negative and conflictual. The focus nowadays  is “disease”, not “health”. Our key words are “ death count”, “wear masks!” , “wash hands!”, “social distancing”, “ go back to normal”, “ the old normal”, the “new normal”.

Today I like to introduce you two new key words:  “breathe and relax”! a new motto “breathe and relax!”

Why breathe and relax are two important practices to remember at all times?

Breathing is life affirming. It reminds us to stay healthy, body-mind-spirit while living.  

Relaxation is be detached from the illusory world of our mind. So…breathe and relax!

Disclaimer:  right breathing and right attitude towards life will not prevent you from getting the virus, but it will boost your immune system and your quality of life and even if you get sick, you will be stronger to heal and you will be more equipped to know what to do to help yourself.

Switch it around: Think of Health and not of disease!

  • Health is our birthright! We are the master of our health, we are not victim.
  • Our life is worth living, therefore struggle to attain true health and to remain positive. This inner affirmation about our worthy life is a good start to help us struggle for self improvement. Breathe for your life! Relaxation gives us life !
  • Life is sacred, need to see the sacredness in our life and in life surrounding us. This right attitude will bring health in our life.
  • You are equipped and supported by Mother Nature, remember her, go back to Nature. Happy Mothers’ Day!
  • Go back to basics… and build up resilience and increase our immunity the natural way! We are equipped with the Power of conscious intention.

Our Thought power is in our hands! Negative thoughts spread like virus. But we are Master of our destiny.

  • Focus on Health and not on disease. You can build your health !
  • We are essentially free. Focus on our innate freedom! All is good. We are strong and courageous. Everything happens because we have lessons to take away!

Think of the analogy of the lotus flower :

The lotus is a beautiful and very fragrant flower that grows out from the mud. The lotus is the symbol well used by meditators. The lotus represents spiritual life It is the theme of this webinar: “ How to live in the world of pains and sufferings and be free!” In other words:” how to live out our karmas and be free!”

What is the true nature of the world?

  • There is no objective world. The world seems to be external to ourselves. But the world is in fact a projection of our mind, according to the yogis. The world is the stage where our karmas will be played out.

We are not living in the same world. Depending on our karma we will perceive the world differently.

From another point of view the world is a creation of God. Both ways of explanation say that it is not material or objective, not something we can control or see with our worldly mind but it is a matter of consciousness.

  • Our mind’s projections are called “the world”: We are attached to our projections of our ideas about people outside of ourselves. Our repeated mind projections create an idea that the world is solid and real.
  • As we keep remembering our past experiences as recorded in our minds and as we keep projecting them out or as our consciousness keeps choosing the same outcome, we replay more or less the same scenario and the world appears as objective.
  • This projected world seen as solid and real outside of ourselves consists of objects. We live in the world of objects and we forget that they are the products of our minds and consciousness at the first place. These objects are perceived by our senses therefore the world we live in is termed a “sensual world”.

Who am I? I am not the objects of my perception and attachments.

The objects of our perception (and attachments) can be:

  • Our body
    • people or things: people can be our family and friends,  things can be our home and work environment, familiar landscape or our possessions.
    • phenomena of nature, made of the five gross elements (Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether). These gross elements exist in their subtle form in the mind.

But Who is the subject, the perceiver?

I am. We are, our True Self is. Objects are multiple, but the Self is One: The key to find peace at all times is to remember the One consciousness in all people, things and phenomena of nature.

Objects change while consciousness remains same. The body changes, ages and dies but consciousness remains untouched.

How to live in the world, find the subject and be free?

  • The idea of the world creates duality and separation. Unless we develop equal vision and see that it is all One, all God, it is better to not be lost in the world. We need to rethink our concept of the world to be free from separation. This is why yogis turn inwards in the beginning of the journey. They are not being egoistic but need to start from their own consciousness.
  • Our lesson is to detach from objects to realize our inner truth or Atman. The Atman is the Self present in all. It is not changing, stable and ancient, perfect and free, all pervading and all knowing. Sensual world is not real: Yogis turn inwards and transcend the sensual world to perceive the Self beyond the projections of the mind.
  • The Self is the subject: Realize your Self at all times as the consciousness underlying all things. The subject is beyond the senses, beyond duality and is Sat-Chit-Ananda.
  • The Self is found in the here and now: In the here and now we can access our consciousness, free from the imprints of the past or the projected future.
  • As a result of karma, we never lived in the here and now: Meditation frees us from karma by bringing us to the here and now. The play on the stage of the world is our karma.
  • Lessons from Master Sivananda (photo)

Swami Sivananda says that the world is your best teacher. There is a lesson in everything.

His last words: “remember, forget! “ (remember the Self, God and forget everything else)

He sees the world with one eye and contemplates the Self with the other eye

  • Lessons from Siva, the first Yogi: (photo)

He is often depicted with eyes half closed and half open. This represents an ideal state of mind that yoga practitioners want to achieve, of being “in the world and out of the world”, seeing the world of names and forms and changing phenomena that we live in, and at the same time seeing the essence of it, as opposed to seeing the manifested world as devoid of spirit and intelligence.

He also is depicted with the third eye open. This means that we are encouraged to see the world with our eye of intuition, or with a mind that has been purified of its lower propensities such as anger, greed, lust, hatred, jealousy and envy. Intuition is higher than intellect. Intuition can be developed only when we transcend duality, or the left brain/right brain split. It includes devotion, or pure love, while intellect might miss half of the picture if there is no pure love in the thinking, or when the thinking is motivated by the ego. 

  • Lessons from Mother Nature! Happy Mother’s Day!

Nature even though is outside of ourselves is close to our hearts: We can easily commune with Nature and find our Oneness with Nature. We feel less lost in the world of nature than the world of our mind. We have a symbiotic relationship with Her. This is our spiritual relationship with God or with the Divine Mother.

Tuning to Nature is a positive way to live in the world: It is easier to find ourselves in the world of nature out of the busy-ness of cities where chaotic and confused human thoughts are bouncing on each other. Nature is God’s mind Projections: Tuning to Nature makes us humble and opens our hearts. It helps us to surrender the egos and calm our minds. (For example a disturbed mind gains much by working in the garden, walking in the sun or swimming in the river).

Nature is powerful (example storms, floods, snow fall, extreme weather conditions) but it is easier to surrender to Her and accept that she is the teacher of our ego. Modern science tried to control and manipulate Her at high prices.

The Sivananda Yoga of synthesis is the wonderful way to attain that sublime state of mind. 

  • It combines in daily life the yogic techniques from the classical 4 paths of Yoga.  We just need to immerse ourselves in the theory and practice of Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga, plus the philosophy of Vedanta and the techniques of self enquiry of Jnana Yoga. Tools for living in and out of the word: Serve, give, love, purify, meditate, realize.
  • However, remember what Swami Sivananda said: ” one ounce of practice equals tons of theory!“. 

Let’s practice!

1. Breathe and relax lying down: In sarvasana posture and learn to breathe abdominally, without pillow or with pillow. Get a pillow ready, the more it is heavy it is better.

2. breathe and relax sitting up: sit up either on chair or cross legged on the ground. 

3. Lungs cleansing exercises: while sitting up, learn Kapalabati breathing .

4. Balancing breath exercise: learn basic Anuloma Viloma basic, alternate nostril breath, without retention and with retention.

5. Breathe and relax either lie down or sit up again, along with positive affirmations applying  the 4 paths of Yoga

  1. Karma Yoga

Breathe and relax! May all karmas become Selfless service.

Breathe and relax! I detach from the results of my actions.

Breathe and relax! I Purify my thoughts and emotions to be free from karma.

Breathe and relax! I am not doing anything.

Breathe and relax!I am not  running away. I am doing my duty while I breathe and relax.

Breathe and relax! I Stop doing actions confirming my separateness.

  • Bhakti Yoga

Breathe and relax! ILove God in all!

Breathe and relax! I accept and Self surrender to everything as God’s will . Breathe and relax! I sublimate my emotions and I am detached from my emotions.

Breathe and relax!  I amPure Love and I open my Heart to all of Creation. Breathe and relax! My devotion to the Divine makes me see beyond the objects to see God. I see God in the world.

Breathe and relax! I am free from all emotional identification and attachment.

Breathe and relax!  I have faith. I am humble and capable of letting go of my own ego.

Breathe and relax! I am compassion for others and for my self.

  • Raja Yoga/ Hatha Yoga

Breathe and relax! I am free from efforts in all of my postures or asanas.

Breathe and relax! I balance and purify my prana and calm down my mind.

Breathe and relax! my understanding and intellect are becoming clearer. 

Breathe and relax! I am dissolving my sense of separateness of Body/Mind in this Meditation.

Breathe and relax! I am detached towards the thoughts in my mind.

Breathe and Relax! I slow down my impulsiveness and my reactive tendencies and my thoughts become clear.

Breathe and relax! I am balanced and content. I practice pranayama to balance myself.

Breathe and relax! I am neither active nor passive. I am neither left brained nor right brained.

Breathe and relax! I am free from stress, I am free from my personality.

Breathe and relax! I amneither logical, linear nor emotional, artistic

Breathe and relax! I am neither male nor female.

Breathe and relax!  I am neither sun nor moonenergy

Breathe and relax! I am not going out searching neither going in hiding. Breathe and relax! I am the lotus. Fragrant and beautiful and free.

Breathe and relax! I am neither referring to past nor future

Breathe and relax! I am in the Here and Now. I am content to be in the present. I Let go of the past story.

Breathe and relax! I am my eternal Soul and I accomplish everything while being. I am One.

  • Jnana Yoga

Breathe and relax! I practice Self Enquiry : who am I?  while relaxing.

Breathe and relax! I detach from my body/mind. I am detach from my false self .

Breathe and relax! I am living, I am alive, I am detached.

Breathe and relax! I am learning my lessons and I am free from ignorance.

Breathe and relax! I assert my own Self in the face of a changing world. Breathe and relax! I assert what is True about my own Self and I get out of the projected world of my mind.

Breathe and relax! I detach from everything. I am the Self that is Pure Love.  It is not rejection.

Breathe and relax! I Amfearless.

Breathe and relax!  I See Divinity in my own Atman – I see the Truth about my own Life

Breathe and relax!  I am pure consciousness in everything, in all situations and all things.

Breathe and relax!  I see with the 3rd eye, the eye of intuition. I see intuitively with my inner spirit.

Breathe and relax! I see unity behind all things. I go beyond the preconceived ideas of the mind about myself, people and things.

Breathe and relax!  I am beyond what I like and what I dislike. I am not seeing what my ego wants.

Breathe and relax! I reconcile the split, the separation inside and outside; here and there; this and that ; me and God; you and me, Good and bad. Breathe and relax! I remain centered dwelling on my own Self. Nothing can touch me, affect me. I am fine, I am perfect. I have always been fine even when I thought I was not fine I was fine.

Breathe and relax!  I AM.

6. Guided relaxation : learn tense and release of muscles and gradual auto suggestions.

Wake up , take away points:

What is the main thing in question here during COVID time ?   Our respiratory system, the very life we breathe in is being threatened.

To deal with it , what do we do? Affirm our life! Our birthright! breathe more! relax more! Be in the world (breathing) and out of the word (relaxing) .

This is the solution to all questions.

We dedicate our breathe to the health and the awakening of all… Om Trayambhakams  …

Hare Om Tat sat.

Yoga Guidelines for conscious self healing and healing of the Earth

Yoga Guidelines for conscious self healing and healing of the Earth

A satsang with swami Sitaramananda

May 3rd 2020 edited

Introduction:

The talk today is about Self Healing and Healing of the environment using Yogic principles. The word Yoga here implies classical Yoga taught holistically in a philosophical traditional background and not just modern urban commercial exercise Yoga taught in a hectic stressful environment. This is an appropriate topic in the context of our public and personal health and immunity crisis due to the outbreak of Corona virus. We just celebrated the 50th Earth day in the middle of the pandemic. We also face more and more Mother Nature protests in forms of global warming, tidal waves, droughts, forest fires and floods.

Our urban and artificial societies are more and more sick and dependent on drugs and medication, feeding on processed food with little prana and creating health problems such as obesity, cancer, cardio vascular and digestive problems, and most recently respiratory problems. Our minds are full of disturbed media scenes of sex and violence, instead of experiencing mountains, sky, water and plants around us. Our world leaders are themselves alienated from nature and our corporations motivated by short term profits, lead us away more and more from our peace and health.

Overall we are externally driven, feeling unstable and empty. Again, we revisit the the old idea of the correspondence between individual health, public health and health of the planet we live in and what can we do about it? How do we balance ourselves in a world out of balance? How to keep our faith and hope and do the right thing in this world in crisis? Together let’s explore the philosophical and practical foundation for a life in Total Harmony with Nature and let’s face our spiritual ignorance(avidya) at the root of our mistaken identity and mistaken perception of the environment we live in. 

There will be a few sections to our talk today:

  1. What is Health according to classical Yoga? What is Healing? what is Self Healing?
  2. What are the principles to follow and certain behaviors to abstain from in order to address the root causes of our physical-mental spiritual ill health? 
  3. What are the behaviors to adopt in order to improve our energy and our body-mind-spirit health?
  4.  How do we apply these principles to the environment? How do we harmonize with the world of nature and with the Cosmic Spirit behind it? Let’s get familiar with some examples of restrictions and observances we can follow when come to the environment.
  5. Vedanta philosophy applied to the environment.  Is there any difference between the inner and outer reality? The individual and the collective energy? How to reconcile material universe and spirit? How do we solve the problems of division, separation and lack of unity? How do we practice unity in diversity?

What is Health?

Swami Sivananda said that “the laws of health are the laws of nature and they should not be violated. He said that there is an intimate connection between the mind and the body. And all diseases take their origin in the mind. The pains that affect the physical body are called secondary diseases, while the vasanas that affect the mind are termed mental and primary diseases. If bad thoughts are destroyed, all bodily diseases will vanish. Treat the mind first. Mental health is more important then physical health. “

Ayurveda says that the prime cause of disease is forgetfulness of our true Nature as Spirit. This means that when we are forgetful, we identify with body and mind vehicle as ourselves and make wrong decisions about lifestyle or about our path to happiness, thus we bring upon ourselves stress and tension leading to diseases. Yoga talks about holistic healing, i.e. healing of body mind spirit.

What is Healing? What is Self Healing?

Yoga talks about the free flow of prana and changing our vibratory level. Ayurveda talks about restoring balance and health getting back to Nature. Vedanta talks about rememberance of our True Self (the Atman) as the ultimate Truth and to have an attitude of detachment towards what the body and mind can come up with as reality. Healing means ceasing to forget ourselves in our constant identification with the body and mind. 

Healing means to realize that we are Pure consciousness behind all things including our body.  

Healing means ceasing to identify with our separated-ness but to see the Oneness. Healing means to cease to identify with our vehicles, and to see

through the veils of consciousness (our body, our prana, our mind, emotions and senses, our intellect and ego). At the same time, healing means connection with Nature and not just indulgence in technology. The Healing journey is a long way. In that journey, we need self aware teachers and leaders who have found the way to peace themselves.

Self Healing means Self Realization, realization of our divine connection with nature and spirit in nature.  It implies changing of one’s own consciousness and lifestyle to come closer to the Truth.

The opposite of it is, getting lost in the habits and mental grooves of the past, getting lost in the restlessness and the desires in an unceasing pursuit of external happiness, and getting lost in the promise of more power in a more advanced technological society. The yogic guidelines for conscious self-healing help us to correct our thinking and isolated feeling, alleviate our sufferings, become clearer in our perceptions of our own self and love of others, and bring us closer to true Health, Peace and Self realization.

Self Healing success is when we are able to break through the chain of karma. In other words, success is being able to retrain ourselves not to repeat the same pattern of conditioned behavior which binds us. The reason why we are not happy comes from the fluctuations of the mind and the constant replaying of its unhealthy patterns. The mind keeps projecting thoughts and emotions that were gained through past experience and reacts to them, thus keeping us bound in the mirage of its own creation. We experience the roller coaster of our mind and emotions and miss out on the rewarding and fulfilling experience of being our own peaceful, loving, happy, present, blissful Self.

2. The foundations of Yoga: the yamas (restrictions) and niyamas (observances).

The yoga masters have given us guidelines for conscious self-development that go to the root cause of our suffering by consciously correcting the course of our actions. We train ourselves in two ways: on one side guarding ourselves not to misbehave, thus repeating our patterns leading to suffering (these are the yamas); and on the other side, actively cultivating positive attitudes and helpful conducts (these are the niyamas). Thus we straighten out our mind, squeezing the impurities out of our mind from both sides, the “not to do’s” and the “to do’s”.

The mind in its pure state is capable of reflecting our beautiful Self or Atman in all situations, in ourselves and others. By purifying the mind, we alleviate our ups and downs, our inner turmoil and conflicts, and we feel free. Otherwise we struggle to remember ourselves and spend our energies in distractions and forgetfulness. The ideal is reached when there is no more forgetfulness of Self and one relaxes in the Peaceful Being.

The Yamas and Niyamas are universal guidelines that if followed will improve our lives in the long term and help remove obstacles stemming from our karmic tendencies, character defects, and bad habits. These guidelines address the fundamental egoistic and desiring nature of ourselves. One might find a character defect more dominant than another but working with one will bring light to the others as well. No one can be exempt from working on oneself.

In the same manner, we expect everyone to follow the rules of traffic, driving on the proper side of the road and observing traffic signals. The Yamas (restrictions) and Niyamas (observances) are to be consciously practiced in thought, word and deed. However, it is important to realize that these self healing guidelines do not turn into judgment to be interpreted as rigid moral rules.  In Truth, the Self is One. The bottom line is that we are one Universal Spirit in myriad expressions.

3. What are the principles to follow and certain behaviors to abstain from in order to address the root causes of our physical-mental spiritual ill health? 

  • Yamas: Restraints (The Things Not to Do)

1/ – Ahimsa:  Ahimsa is the practice of controlling the emotion of anger. Anger comes from selfish desires or expectations unfulfilled. Selfish desire comes from our failure to recognize our fulfillment in the True Self, and our looking for happiness in external objects or situations. Ahimsa means restraining oneself from the reactive tendency to be angry when one’s desires are not met, or the tendency to abuse others and enter into conflicts or wars.

Raja yoga methods to deal with anger: The antidote of anger is contentment or letting go of expectation, accepting that, “It is not my will, but God’s will”. The practice of Non violence requires calmness, courage, self control, self restraint and the practice of serenity. Practice of ahimsa leads one to develop good quality of the heart and leads one to develop mercy, kindness, unselfishness, patience, forgiveness, pure Cosmic Love, compassion, perseverance and peace. If we practice ahimsa, we will be able to maintain durable, positive and loving relationships. To note that one can act out of dharma-righteousness in the spirit of selflessness without being violent or selfish.

Karma Yoga methods: Do service to others to develop love and equal vision instead of basing one’s life on one’s needs, desires and egoism.

Bhakti Yoga methods:  Connect with the secure and fulfilled Divine Love. Trust that the Divine has a plan for each person and surrender to the Divine Plan. Contemplate and glorify the Divine Mother, God, Nature, the Universe. Find acceptance. Practice of listening, giving, serving, humility, remove pride, cultivate devotion and practice friendship with all.

Jnana Yoga methods:  Do self enquiry. Remind of the SatchitAnanda Atman beyond desires. Discriminate and detach from situation that causes irritations. Seeing the big picture.

2/. – Satya:  Satya means truthfulness– It deals with our fear of not meeting our goals, in the eyes of ourselves or others. Fear comes from attachment. We will not be afraid if we do not have any attachment. In truth, we can not gain nor lose anything externally – either name, fame, prestige, position or love because we are already perfect in ourselves and we can not be greater or smaller then what we already are.

Applying Satya, we refrain from the tendency to exaggerate, to manipulate others, or to tell lies in order to achieve an egoistic goal. Sincerity, honesty and straightforwardness will help to simplify and clear the mind, thus achieving inner peace. Purity, Peace and Truth are synonymous terms. Truth comes in the form of righteousness, justice, harmony, ahimsa, harmlessness, forgiveness, impartiality, transparency, desirelessness, modesty, goodness, renunciation magnanimity, nobility, devotion, compassion.

The opposite of truth is deception, falsehood, dishonesty, exaggeration, twisting, egoism, lies, crookedness, manipulation, meanness, dissimulation, cowardice, fear, lack of courage.

Benefits of truthfulness: Health, fearlessness, freedom, clarity, wisdom, strong faith and absence of anxiety. Lies and fearful living create blockages t the flow of prana.

Raja Yoga methods: Calm and clarify the mind through the 8 limbs to discern the truth within that is beyond all concepts of the mind.

Bhakti Yoga methods: Be transparent and humble. Surrender to God’s will. Keep love and faith while cultivating Satsanga with truthful and virtuous people. We count on God to give us what we deserve or need and not what we desire. Making amends, atonements, confessions asking for forgiveness and humble attempts to come closer to the source of Being that is Truth.

Karma Yoga methods: Surrendering of doership and offering of the results of one’s actions, staying even in success or failures will remove fears and anxieties which can lead to lies. The motivation is being kept pure.

Jnana yoga methods: enquire into the nature of ephemeral gains. Examine the attachments and the tendencies of the mind of likes and dislikes. Contemplate and discriminate between the truth and untruth, the real and the illusory, the Self and the Not self. It is the beginning of Healing.

3/ – Brahmacharya:  

Brahmacharya is control or sublimation of the sensual and sexual drive and deals with the emotion of Desire and Lust. Through practicing brahmacharya, we can restrain the tendency to seek sensual pleasures as the goal of life, and to misuse our sexual energy–which is be converted into spiritual energy. This guideline advises us to avoid sexual misconduct and to regulate our impulses, question our motives, and help bring clarity to our human interaction. Applying Brahmacharya in our dealings with others, we will be able to transform our emotional and desirous nature into a fulfilling relationship with the Divine, based on devotion and pure love.

The sexual instinct is the strongest instinct in us, stemming from the instinct of reproduction. It involuntarily prompts a person to the sexual act for the preservation of his species. It is in reality, the creative force in man. It comes from Rajas; Sexual energy can be transmuted into spiritual energy by pure thought. The practice of Brahmacharya is the practice of Purity, to be practiced along with ahimsa, and satya. It is a dynamic conversion process, not a matter of suppression or repression. The reproductive energy is transmuted and transformed into Ojas Shakti or spiritual power.

Truth can not dwell where passion lives. The Atman is sexless.

Raja Yoga methods: By right diet, asana, pranayama, turning inwards of the senses, concentration on sublime thoughts, meditation, japa, worship, the sexual energy is converted into Ojas Shakti.

Bhakti Yoga methods: By intense devotion to one’s pure ideal, the energy of desire for union can be sublimated into pure love.

Karma Yoga methods: By dedicating oneself to the service of the ideal divine beloved, one can elevate this instinctive self-serving energy of desire into the selfless impulse to do good for a larger whole.

Jnana Yoga methods: By seeing the other as one’s own Self, one can disassociate with the idea of a desirable mate. Through the sophisticated development of pure intelligence, we can discriminate between the mental habits of accumulated instinctual lifetimes and the Atman. The practice of Purity allows us to aspire to taste the super sensual Atmic bliss. Healing of the Mind and the emotions that leads to the recovery of the True Self often starts with the calming of passion.

4/. Asteya:  non stealing, not taking what doesn’t belong to you.

It is also non-covetousness. It deals with our tendency towards jealousy and envy. Observing this guideline will counteract our tendency to give in to our desires, or think that satisfying material desires is the goal of life. It will help us to be content, knowing that what is supposed to come to us by our own karmas and merits will come naturally, without our manipulation or intervention.

Raja Yoga methods: be content with simple life, count your blessings, practice of giving instead of taking or stealing.

Bhakti Yoga methods: See someone’s happiness as your own. Keep good relationships and pure love. Surrender the ego.  

Karma Yoga methods: Accept our karmas, and do our duty, let go of results. Understand that it is better to work through one’s own karma rather than someone else’s karma.

Jnana Yoga methods: Know that all is impermanent and desires are illusory and changing. 

5.- Aparigraha:  

Aparigraha means non-accumulation or non-acceptance of bribes. It deals with our tendency towards greed. Observing this guideline counteracts our tendency to think that the more we attain or possess, the more we will be safe and secure. It further guides us not to forfeit our soul to the material life, and to cultivate an attitude of detachment towards material possessions. Leading a simple life allows the spirit to remain light, detached and self-reliant. It also helps us in our dealings with others to be strong and free as others can manipulate our weakness by bribery.

Raja Yoga methods: The opposite of greed is charity, austerity, sacrifice, simplicity and renunciation. Avoiding distractions, keeping discipline and focus will help avert the tendency towards indulgence in what one’s likes.

Bhakti Yoga methods: connect with the secure and fulfilled divine love. The sublimation method is to give in charity to spiritual or humanitarian institutions.

Karma Yoga methods: Actively helping the downtrodden, the poor, lonely and forgotten.

Jnana Yoga methods: Patanjali said that the conquest of greed leads to one’s true meaning of life and the knowledge of the purpose of birth. The purpose of birth is Self Realization, to see Spirit in Matter. Accumulation of matter and negligence of Spirit lead us away from this truth.

  • What are the behaviors to adopt in order to improve our energy and our body-mind-spirit health?

5 Niyamas: Observances (The Things to Observe or to Do)

1, – Saucha:  Saucha is purity. This observance will help us to counteract impurities in our bodies, minds, and outer environments, and help us come into deeper contact with our true selves. By purifying the emotions and thoughts, which are like coverings over our eyes, we can begin to see more clearly and gain a truer perspective.

Raja Yoga methods: The practice of the 5 points Yoga life(asana, pranayama, relaxation, diet, positive thinking, meditation) nurtures sattva and purify the mind and heart.

Bhakti Yoga Methods: Devotion and humility purify the heart and bring pure love. Devotion and love help one to overcome hatred, guilt and grief. 

Karma Yoga methods: Selflessness purifies the ego and its likes and dislikes, its attachments and aversions. By helping people with the same problems as yours, one gains perspective and regains the sense of Self Worth.

Jnana Yoga methods: We can be lost in the feelings of guilt, shame or grief. However, difficult it might be, remember the pure, the brilliant, the limitless, the stainless atman, untouched by any happenings and impurities. Try to forgive the past and feel strong in the present.  Remember that the mind is a distorted, imperfect instrument for seeing the true Self and reality. Remember the false self, the ego, that is attached to its own impurities. Remember not to forget ourselves, to turn within and to remember ourselves. This will dispel darkness and brings about light.

2/.  Santosha:  Santosha is contentment. This practice will help us counteract the tendency to look externally for happiness and become dissatisfied with our lots in life, rather than counting our blessings. Through practicing Santosha, we begin to realize that God’s grace is always with us.

Raja Yoga methods: The 5 points Yoga Life helps to calm the restless mind and turns it inwards. Concentration and meditation thin out the mind activities.

Bhakti Yoga methods: Praise the wisdom of the Supreme and know that all is taken care of. Surrender to God’s will and accept all as Prasad.

Karma Yoga methods: Serve others less fortunate then yourself, think of others who are more sick then you, this will keep the mind contented.

Jnana Yoga methods: See the whole world as your own home, and the wealth of Nature as your own wealth. Remove the I and mine and you will be contented.

3.- Tapas:  Tapas means austerity. This practice will help us to counteract the belief that comforts of the body and mind are the goals of life. It will help us avoid imprisonment in the sensual, limited life that is governed by the mind and the senses. Tapas will help us to assert our supremacy over the mind and emotions, freeing us and give the power back to the spirit. All practice of self restraint to turn the mind inwards is tapas. The world under lock down is practicing tapas. There are many forms of tapas. Bear insults, injury persecution, discomfort and fatigue are all forms of tapas.

Raja Yoga methods: all 8 limbs of Raja Yoga can be considered as training tapas. Meditation is the highest form of tapas.

Bhakti Yoga methods: Keeping the emotions controlled for the sake of Pure Love is emotional tapas. Keeping faith and loyalty instead of doubts and changing loyalty are mental tapas. Listening to scriptures, mantra chanting are tapas.

Karma Yoga: Serving all, willingly, at any time, all the time is tapas. Adapting oneself to the needs of service is tapas. Doing any kind of service whether one likes it or not is tapas.

Jnana Yoga methods: Keeping vigilance in Self Enquiry is tapas. Keeping discrimination, detachment, self remembrance are all forms of tapas.

4. – Swadhyaya and Ishwara Pranidhana: Self Study and Self Surrender: Swadhyaya is the study of scriptures. Doing this will help us to counteract the idea that only what we can see and what people tell us about ourselves is true. The scriptures, on the contrary, tell us of a reality beyond the normal perceptions and glorify the true Self; they will inspire us in our search for Truth.

– Ishwara-pranidhana:  Ishwara-pranidhana means self-surrender to God or a higher power. Self-surrender counteracts our tendency to think that we are the best and the top, that we have all the powers and that we are controlling our lives. With this egoistic bend of our mind, we do not have to adjust or accept something that is not to our liking, so we blame and resent instead of trying to see the big picture. Practicing self-surrender will help us work through our karmas by practicing acceptance and knowing that everything happens for a reason.

  • How do we apply these principles to the environment? What is the relationship between self healing and healing of the Earth? Examples of restrictions and observances when come to the environment.

The prana that we bring through Yoga practice has a healing effect upon our environment as well as ourselves. Self healing and healing of the Earth happen simultaneously. Yoga framework, the Yamas and niyamas, can become the spiritual guidelines for the ecological movement.

Yoga can contribute an integrate way of working with the forces of life to aid in the process of purification (Saucha) of the planet, as people become more still and content (santosha) , less indulgent and weak, being able to cooperate with Nature (Tapas), becoming more and more aware of the interdependence of things ( through study of sacred scriptures) and last but not least, by being able to surrender to the Supreme Being, thus not thinking that we as specie is the Master of the Universe (ishwara pranidhana).

As we elevate ourselves, and align ourselves with yogic principles, we as a collective can act responsibly and respectfully, abstaining from creating harm to the environment and others (ahimsa), we come close to the truth of Oneness of all Beings (satya), we control our desires and passions (brahmacharya) , we become content and respectful, not  taking what doesn’t come to us naturally (asteya) and most importantly we are refraining from greed (aparigraha) which is at the root of so many environmental harmful activities .

By bringing in these higher sattvic energies, and staying away from rajasic and tamasic energies, Yoga has the potential to help the world. The most remarkable things I have seen being reported during these days of global lockdown are the diminishing of city pollution (Himalayas ranges are being seen from Delhi!), the appearance of wild animals even though apparently the dancing dolphins in the canals of Venice was fake news, they were being spotted nearby in the waters but not in the canals of Venice.

Yoga movement hopefully is moving from just simply self concerned exercises to conscious improvement of our lifestyle, our way of eating, sleeping, entertaining ourselves and consumption. Yoga and Ayurveda lifestyle automatically connect all with Natural methods of self healing by elevating our consciousness how to increase our supply of prana through the elements and how to balance ourselves.

Automatically Yoga and Ayurveda lifestyle will reduce the impact upon the environment when people follow vegetarian diet and stop the cruelty to animals and exploitation of our natural environment. Yogic lifestyle value simplicity and self restraint and automatically affect the way we consume and the excesses that come from a consumer society. Hopefully, the days and months under locked down, help us to curb our desires and needs for more stuff and help us realize that we can survive on the bare minimum and be healthy and happy. We need to contemplate on the meaning of what is “essential” need and what is “non essential”.

Classical Yoga teachers and Ayurveda lifestyle counsellors can promote the distancing from artificial living, the returning back to nature and to Earth as well, the simple living and high thinking in ashrams and retreats out of town, in beautiful nature, the self sufficiency on the land, the gardening and producing of our own food from our organic garden.

     Examples of what we can do to observe Yamas and niyamas and positively influence our environment:

Ahimsa: avoid injuring the environment, adopt a vegetarian lifestyle, driving, flying and traveling less; buying local organic food or producing our own, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle, compost, buying bulk, avoiding packaging.

Satya: follow up as much as possible in thoughts, words and deeds the ecological considerations by examining daily our choices.

Brahmacharya – do not indulge in the senses and sexual abstinence.

At the base of our desires for consumption is our instinct of reproduction. The problem is we never have enough reproductive success as we are never satisfied with our reproductive success. People desire limitless wealth, status, and power because those instincts helped our ancestors survive & achieve reproductive success. We can’t depend on how we feel (by doing what comes naturally) to achieve satisfaction. Modern society innovations intensify competition for wealth, status and power causing greed, crime, grief, hatred, disappointment, depression, and environmental destruction.

Asteya- do not steal: Simply taking what we think we need, without thinking about how it arrives to us, what may be destroyed as a result, how we may be taking from others, including future generations, is stealing. Try to find healthy, green products, ethical products according to scientific ratings. Example www.goodguide.com  Each product is given health, environment and society scores 1-10

Aparigraha – do not be greedy:  Live simply, avoid accumulating things, de-clutter, recycle what you do not use, live beneath your means.

NIYAMAS (OBSERVANCES) APPLIED TO THE ENVIRONMENT:  

Saucha – cleanliness and purity,  both inner and outer. We are what we eat, so we are encouraged to only eating fresh, organic food, preferably grown ourselves or nearby. Working to clean up the oceans, the lands, and our environment, reduce production of trash, abstain from non recyclable trash.

Santosha- be contented: Avoid over consumption.Avoid falling for illusory differences between products. Accept and appreciate that which is provided by nature, eat local seasonal food; Know your local herbs; Wait for the sun to shine to clean clothes so it will be possible to line dry them; Appreciate abundance of power on sunny days and avoid activities that require power on overcast days, use a solar oven to cook food on sunny days.

Tapas – perform austerities: Austerity means curtailing the insatiable demands of the senses. Fasting. Only eating local seasonal food. Adjusting to seasonal temperature changes instead of using air conditioning. Avoid bottled water which is convenient but bad for the environment.

Swadhyaya: self study and study of scriptures: Become more and more aware of our collective wrong doings and our karmic imprints:  learn how things are produced, merchandized and consumed, trashed or recycled, and try to find alternatives.

Ishwara Pranidhana: keep being humble and realize the interconnectivity of things in nature. Surrender to God’s will for us in everything and live respectfully and in harmony with the powers of the divine mother in Nature, instead of willfully create for ourselves a discarded, isolated, egoistic, unaware, sensual, lack of devotion, artificial life. Realize higher powers of consciousness present in all things. Keep connection with it and find peace and contentment is the key to yogic ecological living.

  • Vedanta for Ecological living:

Remember unity of life. -Unity in diversity. – Remember our mental habits to repeat our tendencies (in this regard, yamas and niyamas help to rebuild our course of actions). Remember the illusory nature of our perceptions which keep us in the same cycle of reactions (story of seeing the snake instead of seeing the rope). Remember that we are Satchitananda Atman, not a victim, not a consumer, not separated and alien, but the peaceful, powerful, supported at all times by Divine consciousness, self reliant and self delight Self. 

Vedanta philosophy applied to the environment is sustainable bridging our well being with the well being of Nature and others. There is no difference between the inner and outer reality. If we elevate one, we elevate the other. If we become self conscious, we will elevate the environment and heal the Earth. If the Earth is taken care of, we will also be taken care of. Individual efforts influence the collective energy and collective awareness influences our personal effort.  

Vedanta philosophy by addressing the root cause of our individual and collective suffering and recognizing our spiritual ignorance the source of it, solve the problems of division, separation and lack of unity between groups and nations.  The root cause of our suffering is our false identification with our culture, national boundaries, political leaderships, gender and race and forget our common oneness.

Bringing out the ecological and planetary importance of Yoga and Ayurveda is the real mission we need to undertake. This will benefit all of us now – our societies in stand still under lock down, but also will benefit our future generations. At this poignant time, let’s practice the yamas and niyamas as guidelines of high thinking and high living and not as dogma and moral rules which bring divisiveness, arrogance, judgment and holier than thou attitude. 

Let’s become compassionate and forgiving. Let’s teach more Yoga, Ayurveda and Vedanta to the masses. And let’s bow in gratitude for favors and support received from the Divine Mother seeing each other and all beings as brothers and sisters sharing the same earth, same sky, same water. Let’s celebrate our unity in diversity!

Let’s pray to the forces of Nature… This is the classical vedic mantra:

Shanti Mantras:

Om sham no mitrah sham Varunah  ̣(may the sun be good to us)

     Sham no bhavaturyamà (may the God of the Waters be good to us)

  • … you are indeed the visible Brahman. I shall call Thee just. I shall call thee Truth. May that protect me. May That protect the teacher. Om Peace, peace, peace.
Vedic Knowledge (Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda, and Jyotish) to Alleviate Suffering

Vedic Knowledge (Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda, and Jyotish) to Alleviate Suffering

A satsang by swami Sitaramananda

Introduction:

In this time of pandemic, our global society is suffering in many levels. Even if we can carry on with our lives and we are not directly affected by the virus, the news, the images and statistics are haunting. This is an attempt to summarize what we can make use of from the tool box of Yoga techniques, the philosophy and tradition of Vedanta, and the guidance of Ayurveda Vedic healing science, as well as Jyotish, the science of karma and of timing. These tools can be applied for all conditions, – either for a medical responder from New York, or a mother with kids out of school to care for at home, or a regular student of Yoga already on the path of self healing and self – transformation.

What is suffering?

The nature of our human condition is suffering (dukha). There are many teachings on the nature of our afflictions and sufferings. Sufferings can be of different types: (1) physical and emotional discomfort and pain we all experience due to birth, old age, sickness and death, (2) the suffering of change, when we cling to the impermanent expecting it to be permanent, (3) and the suffering of existence when we have to endure the fruits of our karma.

Swami Sivananda said “the gap between what you want and what you got is suffering”.

Patanjali said in Raja Yoga sutras 2.15 “every action brings pain due to the anticipation of loss, new desires, or conflicts arising out of the interaction between the mind and the three qualities of Nature” and in 2:16 “the misery that has not yet manifested should be avoided”.

Bhagavad Gita guidance: 2:14 “Endure the pairs of opposites from contact with the sense objects. Everything has a beginning and an end”

2:38 “Live life, stand up and engage in the struggle with your own lower tendencies and karmic results with equanimity”.

12:17 Sri Krishna guidance “He who neither rejoices, nor hates, nor grieves, nor desires, renouncing good and evil, and who is full of devotion, is dear to Me.”

The motive for spiritual practices and disciplines is freedom from suffering. Yogis talk about freedom from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth. They talk about liberation from ignorance, emancipation, enlightenment or attainment of Self Knowledge. Yoga talked about the 4 paths of Yoga to attain moksha, freedom from suffering. In fact, all Vedic sciences are based on the same idea, how to devise ways to facilitate liberation, the ultimate goal.

What is Vedic knowledge?

These 4 systems Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda and Jyotish are part of what is called Vedic Knowledge.Vedic Knowledge comes from the vedas, the oldest scripture of mankind and offers a universal view of life from physical to psychological well being to unleashing our highest creativity and deepest awareness. It is relevant to us today, in this exceptional times, to get inspiration from vedic knowledge in order to understand where we came from, where are we now and where are we going towards?

How Vedic knowledge is relevant in the world of today?

The pandemic has brought us close together as we are facing a common invisible threat and are learning from each other. Through the Internet, we are now in communication with individuals and cultures throughout the world that were regarded as foreign and alien not long ago, and we are also learning about the intricate web of nature through the planetary ecology. We can no longer ignore Climate change and recently, during the epidemic when everyone is obsessed with the virus itself, many conscious leaders of the world brought together the idea of Climate change and Corona virus. They pondered: What we did to nature and our planet that would bring about the epidemic? We need to step out of the main stream blame game, is it a Chinese virus or an American virus, who did what and when, cease the denial attitude and together take the opportunity to deeply question ourselves of our own responsibility in the problem humanity as a whole is facing. This is a time to be meditated upon.

The world is sick. Similarly, the world is like a sick individual. When striked by disease, we went through 3 phases. For example, a cancer patient or a sick individual would forcibly be staying at home and rest, stop all activities and rest, do automatically “social distancing” and rest. Does this sound familiar?

 The sick individual would ask the question in the beginning: “why me?”, “How can this happens?”, “When will I be cured?”, “When can I get back to my life as before?”. Our world is asking those questions.

Further along, the questions turn into: “what is the relationship between my mysterious disease and my lifestyle or what I did in my life?” In the same manner, the world as an organic entity would asks: “what is the relationship between the fierce corona virus outbreak and what humanity did as a whole?”, “What kind of lifestyle we are indulging in?”, “what are our impacts on the environment?”.

Later, the question would turn to: “This is a sacred opportunity, how can I learn from this disease? How do I truly heal? “; “how can we heal as humanity? how can we restore our connection to ourselves and to the earth? “. Instead of blaming, and rejection, we become grateful and aware.  

We realize more than ever our interdependence, our oneness. To echo Vedic scholar and author, dr. David Frawley, he said that “we are no longer content with older cultural models caught up in nationalistic concerns that do not address all humanity and the whole of life”. This is the time for rising above the same consciousness that has created the corona virus and move towards conscious living, in harmony with our own Self and with Nature. This is called Yoga. Yoga as a conscious Yoga Life, not just a physical system of exercises, but a traditional holistic system of life integrating body-mind-spirit, with roots from India.

Vedic sciences (Yoga, Vedanta, Ayurveda and Jyotish) are based on the same principles. This is not the context to go deep into each of these sciences but to bring to the attention to all, that they are not different and separated sciences, they are tightly interrelated. They are not old sciences, out of fashion, but they speak clearly in the world today. It is uncanny that we see these teachings reverberating everywhere in the messages we received in the world today:  

  • To make the world healthy, turn within and stay home.
  • To save lives, stay still, self quarantine, stop moving.
  • Sacrifice the old habits of turning outwards for distractions, be responsible, calm down, relax, be content.
  • To heal the outer world, heal ourselves first.
  • The answer lies within, do not look for it outside.
  • Happiness and Health are within, cease to look for them outside.
  • We are powerful beyond measures. Together we win, divided we perish.
  • The Self and the Universe are integrated.
  • Unity in Diversity: truth is one, paths are many.
  • The micro cosmos and the macro cosmos mirror each other.
  • What we experience is a universal dance of matter and consciousness.

In this context, health workers, warriors on the front line are quickly learning their lessons and in the best scenario, they become de facto teachers either they are aware or not. They can elevate themselves on the battlefield and learn precious lessons, showing examples to many. Not only health care workers, but anybody who become touched by the depth and dimension of the current world suffering, and specially yoga teachers, can all become leaders of humanity towards the Light, or liberation from suffering. Health workers can become Yogis and not traumatized victims to the disease, and Yogis can become healers actively working to uplift consciousness. In this context, the Sivananda Yoga Health education program started 3 years ago, becomes very relevant and helpful.

I. How Jyotish, the science of light (vedic astrology) can help us to alleviate suffering?  

Jyotish or Vedic astrology is the science aiming to bring light into the karmas experiencing as specific intricate situations.  Vedic astrology would help to see the relationships between aspects of our life, help us to detach and teach us to be patient in our attempt to be free from suffering situations.

  1. Everything in our life is the manifestation of our karmas. It is not the truth about ourselves. The more you are detached from the identification with aspects of our karmas, better it is. Seeing the 12 areas of our karmas as outlined in Jyotish, helps us to be aware of our purpose and tendencies (1.our birth in this body and our general intention in life, our life force and overall character, 2. Our resources and support system, 3. Our communications and free will, 4. Our heart and emotions, 5. Our education and intelligence 6. Our weaknesses 7. Our partnership, 8. Our deep psyche 9. Our dharma and faith, 10. Our career and Contribution 11. Our gains and 12. Our losses.).
  2. The karmas even though felt real and painful, are changing by nature. Vedic astrology teaches us the cyclical nature of the unfolding of karmas, represented by the dashas and transit system. 
  3. We are not our minds and our likes and dislikes: As you think is what you become, as you think, is what you see.  We do not live in the same world because our minds are different. We can understand people’s mindset so we do not suffer from expectations unfulfilled, and we can adapt ourselves and accept people for who they are, thus removing instances of suffering from relationships in our life.
  4. The moon (the mind) is important in Jyotish.  We can alleviate our suffering by recognizing out mental tendencies.  It is our perception of reality that creates reality. The countenance and behavior of our mind and emotions color everything we come in contact with. Suffering comes from our minds.

For example, there is the tendency of the mind to be alone, thinking in own head and not engaging or cooperating with others, creating isolation and loneliness (moon alone), disposition of the mind to be perfectionistic (moon mars Saturn), pessimistic and depressed (moon Saturn), fast and angry (moon mars), unsupported (hemmed in between malefics), optimistic open and dharmic (moon jupiter), fearful and desirous (rahu moon), edgy and spacy (moon ketu). There is dark moon, bright moon, weak moon and too emotional moon.

  • Vedic astrology shows us our ego from the disposition of the sun.  Our ego brings about suffering, why we have difficulty in self assertion, or too much self assertion, when we have too much dependence on relationships and too much independence. The sun also represents the government, and our relationship with authority.
  • Not knowing our purpose and motivation bring suffering. Vedic astrology can show us our deeper motivation when we come in this life, and why we feel sometimes that our life is not the life we are meant to live. It shows the motivation of the soul and how the soul plans to work out the karmas of this life.  It shows our areas of completeness and maturity and our areas of weaknesses and future growth.
  • Suffering comes from our unresolved inner conflicts, the unfulfilled areas of our life. Jyotish gives insights into how to mitigate these tendencies from past.
  • Vedic astrology when understood properly can help us becoming more aware of our journey and helps us to avoid suffering coming from making the same mistake. It shows us that our destiny is in our hands and in contrary of popular belief, it shows us that we can always do something to improve our situation, that nothing is desperate, it is difficult but this too shall pass.
  • Vedic astrology shows us our inner motivation, kama (enjoyment), artha (wealth), dharma (righteousness) and moksha (liberation) so we can consciously evolve in our motivation.
  • Vedic astrology shows us the timing of heavens. It is the science of time.

Example today is Akshaya Titriya an auspicious day to start a spiritual project, when both sun and moon are exalted.

 II. What Ayurveda has to teach us to free us from suffering?  

  • Ayurveda is the science of life. It is the traditional system of medicine from India which is based on the theory of the 5 elements. Ayurveda teaches us to honor the wisdom behind the processes of nature manifesting as our own our health and wellbeing. It prevents us from diseases by teaching us how to live peacefully with our body and our environment.
  • Ayurveda points out that we are to manage our doshas in order to be healthy.  (doshas are biological humours known as Vata, Pitta, Kapha which essentially are the powers of air, of fire and of water). They are not perfect and they are constantly changing. Doshas are primarily disease causing factors.
  • Ayurveda teaches us the virtue of balance, understanding of our constitution and balance between the doshas, between the energy of action and movement of Vata (ether and air), the energy of transformation, conversion, and metabolism of Pitta (fire and water) and the energy of construction, lubrication and nourishment of Kapha (water and earth).
  • Ayurveda aims at reducing excess doshas as disease causing factors. Ayurveda goes to the root cause of our imbalance, aims at treatment of the dosha behind the disease not simply the disease itself.
  • Ayurveda taught us to recognize our strength and weakness in our mind-body type and live a healthy lifestyle accordingly.
  • Lifestyle change leads to wellness.  For acute diseases, a clinician is required. Changing in lifestyle (food, sleep, sensual inputs , relaxation and activity etc..) can improve quality of life and leads to health and well being and not disease. It is important that we learn how to eat vegetarian non harmful food.
  •  In a deeper level, Ayurveda helps us to balance the  subtle energies of Prana, tejas and ojas that are the Master forms of Vata, Pitta and Kapha. We knew that Prana can be strengthened through pranayama, Tejas increases by the practice of mantra, of concentration and intuition.  Ojas is the energy of sustenance and is increased through a rich nutritive vegetarian diet, ojas enhancing herbs, adequate rest and relaxation and by cultivation of faith, devotion, compassion and endurance and most importantly by contacting the inner Soma or nectar of bliss. Consequently, it is said that the world is missing ojas, thus the occurrence of corona virus, because the food is not sattvic (pure, natural and wholesome), lack of rest and relaxation, and lack of faith and devotion and endurance by too much rajasic activity, and lack of connection to higher Self which brings happiness and contentment. The shelter at home order is received by many as a permission to slow down and rest, meditate and connect with our blissful self.
  • Ayurveda helps us to optimize our connection to nature and teaches us to live according to the time of the day and the time of the seasons. We learn to follow our daily routine and to adjust our life according to the times.
  • Last but not least, Ayurveda, not only addresses proper nutrition, but also the relationship between food and elimination, as well as the necessity of giving the body rest and detoxification. By slowing down, the world is detoxifying.

III. What Yogic techniques and philosophy we can use daily and in case of emergency?  

  • From Yoga science, we understand that the body-mind are our instruments and not ourselves.  We take care of our vehicles and we are not the vehicles. We are the master of our vehicles. The physical body is not meant to live forever. Its function is birth, growth, decay and death.  This perspective alleviates greatly our suffering due to attachment to the body and identification with it.
  • We also know that the mind is our instrument only, that what we feel or our character, personality are not our true selves. This allows us to navigate the mind and not become a victim to it. Our emotions can be overwhelming but we are not our emotions.
  • We learnt how our inner instrument works, how to make use of our higher faculty of intellect to discriminate on the right action to take for progress in life and self realization. We knew that we are not our senses, and our subconscious habits, we learn to assert our power of choice.
  • Yoga taught us techniques to move our prana and unblock any blockages that can lead to tension and diseases. Asanas properly performed move our prana and induce well being, specially when relaxation and concentration and proper breathing are there.
  • The scripture of Yoga declares that by increasing our prana (life force) and by the purification of our subtle channels through pranayama, we can destroy diseases and live a vibrant life.
  • The most valuable teaching of Yoga is the knowledge how to increase our vibrational wavelength through pranayama and how it alleviates suffering immediately through the change of our thought quality in our mind.
  • Another precious teaching of Yoga is the teaching on concentration. How we can be free from suffering simply by keeping our minds one pointed. By doing so, the peaceful, blissful self can be revealed.
  • We have a direction to guide our endeavors. In all aspects of our life, we try to stay away from tamas (inertia, pulling down), we calm down rajas (action, egoism, passion) and we nourish sattwa (purity, balance, wisdom, harmony). The teaching of the gunas is invaluable to guide our external life and our inner life.
  • The deeper teaching of Yoga comes from the 4 paths of Yoga teaching. We go to the roots of our sufferings by transforming our Karma through Karma Yoga; by sublimating our desires and emotions through Bhakti Yoga, and by

controlling our minds with meditation (Raja Yoga) and last by detaching from the sense of false self to embrace the Truth within. In other words, healthcare workers can for example, accept internally the lessons of life and death, do the duty and let go of expectations and results, keep focusing and meditating while in action and know that there is another picture than this one, a level of beauty, of perfection untouched by anything, which is residing right in our heart.

  • When overwhelmed, relax into God’s love and care, detach from the dramas, breathe into the pain, exhale and let go, surrender to God’s will and let go of one’s will.

IV. How Vedanta philosophy helps us to alleviate our suffering?

  • Vedanta philosophy teaches us that all sufferings come from our forgetfulness of Self.
  • It teaches about the nature of our immortal spirit and how to realize it in our lives.
  • It teaches the nature of our changing illusions and misperceptions.
  • It points out to our ultimate oneness in consciousness.
  • It points out to a reality that is perfect, which we intuit in our soul.
  • We learn to change perspective in our thinking and see things differently.
  • Life is real and death is real but both are unreal, two aspects of the same reality that is beyond life and death.
  • Practicing Vedanta, we learn to think correctly about ourselves and the reality by learning to discriminate between the real and unreal, the self ad the not self. We learn to lose ourselves to find ourselves. The ego is not real; it can be an obstacle.
  • Vedanta philosophy encourages us to detach from what we think we are, to remember our eternal Self and and not losing ourselves in the unreal.
  • All things changing are unreal in essence. It is just an appearance, projected by our mind.
  • We learn to step back and see the bigger picture, and cease to take things personal.
  • We do not know who we are but we know who we are not.
  • By knowing who we are not, what remains is the truth.
  • By detaching from our minds, which function out of the past and the future, we can be ourselves, in the eternal present.
  • Happiness is not in this world, turn within and find the Atman, the Self that is Sat chit Ananda bliss absolute.
  • We do our duty, fulfill our karmas, do the best we can but at the same time

Know that perfection and fulfillment are not to be found in this relative world.

CONCLUSION:

–     All Yogic sadhanas, all Vedic sciences are wonderful tools helping us navigating our lives and becoming stronger and more sattvic, so to ultimately realize ourselves and be free from all suffering due to our ignorance.

The Yogis say: Ignorance is death, freedom of the soul from ignorance is liberation, self realization and conquest of death.

Lead me from darkness to light

From the fear of death to immortality.

Asato ma sad gamaya

Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya

Mrityur ma amritam gamaya

Om purnamadah purnamidam purnat

Purnamudachyate

Purnasya purnamadaya

Purnamevavasishuate

Om shanti shanti shanti

Om peace, peace, peace,

Swami Sitaramananda

04/26/2020