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.
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:
Understand what thought is, and how it works
Breathe and relax and Visualize Self
The 3 levels of mind – how to move from lower mind to higher mind
Practice of conversion of thoughts
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.
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).
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)
Thesubconscious 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
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
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:
What is Health according to classical Yoga? What is Healing? what is Self Healing?
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?
What are the behaviors to adopt in order to improve our energy and our body-mind-spirit health?
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.
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 Selfis 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 alsonon-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.
The topic of today is a complex topic, we will try our best to
talk about how to bring meaning to our lives no matter what circumstances we
found ourselves in. The two words of Karma and Dharma are charged with meaning.
Considering we do not know if everyone in the audience has the same
understanding about this, we will go a little bit in details, about karma and
dharma to describe the cause of our existence – according to ancient Yogic
philosophy- and what we are supposed to do to make the best out of our life. We
need to see “the big picture” to become wise resulting from this expanded
vision.
During the threat of a
pandemic Covid 19 upsetting life all round us, during this crisis situation,
where we have to fall back to survival mode, it seems futile to ask such
question. Yet it is precisely during these times, that we need to focus on
finding new grounds, new ways and to realign ourselves differently and discover
new territories and possibilities about ourselves and our potentials.
What is karma and How
karma works?
Karma
comes from Desires.
Karma means Action and the results of action. Thinking is action.
Any thought will bring about a reaction.
You experience the present life as a result of the past coming into the
present. Karma is law of cause and effect.
Some karmas (or karmic situations) seem to be good and some are appearing to be
negative. The theory on Karma, explains that “We reap the fruits of the seeds
we grow. Good actions bring its own results and bad actions bring its own
consequences. There is no accident or haphazard things in this world.” I know this seems cruel and some of you might
rise objections as to why some people would have to die from Corona virus now,
alone in hospital grasping for air, some people would have to perish while
helping others on the front line, some people have no shelter to shelter under
and some others can afford have all the medical care to fight off the disease.
The Root Causes
of Life’s Struggles
Life doesn’t end with death, according to Yogic philosophy. We
need to look deeper into the cause of our struggles or luck which might come
from beyond this life. The law of cause and effect, when applied can be very
simple: If we enjoy peace and health now, it is because we have contributed to
peace and health of someone sometime.
If we suffer from loneliness, it is we have created isolation in
somebody. If we face a situation that
seems like a choice between being selfish and survive or being compassionate
and humble and risking our lives, it is because in the past when confronted
with these situations we have always chosen the former. We are being given this same choice again in
order to choose differently. Similarly,
if we feel that lying or manipulating a situation will be to our advantage, we
need to choose honesty and straightforwardness and find strength in having good
character, of doing the ethical thing.
Genuinely helping another person to attain more material comforts in
their life will manifest in yours as a boon of good fortune.
Take Responsibility of
your life and choices.
Karma does not work differently at work, in private life. There
is also a group collective karma. You
are born in a certain era, certain society, certain level of technological
development. Everything is interrelated. By improving your character at work
you improve your happiness at home. By
improving your relationships at home you improve your business as your energy will
flow better.
Cultivating contentment with what you have already been given
releases you from the karma of constant restlessness of desiring more. Giving
freely and charitably results in greater wealth coming your way. Stinginess, in the contrary, brings with it a
sense of lack, of never having enough.
Maintaining pure intentions, which come from your heart, brings lasting
peace of mind; whereas, sometimes following the head and other times the heart
brings confusion, fragmentation, and problems in the future. Seeking inspiration from the wise people
while avoiding back-biting and gossiping attracts supportive people that will
be key to your success. In the same manner, negativity, divisiveness, and
bringing your competitors or coworkers down will return to you in the form of
stress and fear. Inflexibility and
desire for control bring you more situations that you can never control. But, letting go of the need for control and
realizing that you may not be aware of subtler forces at work gives insight into
the interconnectivity and self-regulating nature of creation. Everything is, in fact, perfect; we just
often fail to see it. Cultivating belief
in this truth brings great peace and relaxation.
The twelve areas of Karma in this life.
The more you identify with your karma, the more your
karma becomes real.To be free from it you have to know it, so
you don’t identify with it. These are 12 areas of karma, intertwined with
each other.
The
body:
The body is said to be a
battlefield where the karmic lessons are learnt. From the seed of karma, sprout
out the body and mind.
With the body you
inherit certain psychology pertaining to the
gender.
When you are born you
are born in a body belonging to a certain race
and culture. The collective karma will come with it. You are born white, yellow or black. The
karmic condition comes with it, depending on the era you are born in.
You also inherit from
the moment you are born a certain amount of life
force. Some are born healthy with lots of life force.
Some are born weak, not
so healthy. Some are born with fire element constitution, prone to action. Some
are born with water element, prone to emotions. The karma with the body is
already there, male, female, strong, weak.
The family, relatives and resources.
Then you have the karma
of the family, the relatives, people that you live with in your early life. You
might be supported or not supported. You
have karma of having money or not having money no matter what you do.
your karma relating to your
abilities in communication and your self will or not. Your relationship with
siblings.
Relationship karma with your emotional
heart and happiness, your mother, and your home, house and property.
Then you have the karma with your
children, your physical children or your creativity, which is your children in
an abstract manner.
This is the karma about your health
and diseases and challenges.
You have karma with your partner
either easy or difficult.
You also have difficult invisible
karmas, hidden. This relates to the energy within the psyche, the area of
spiritual insight or death.
You have karma with your Guru, your
spiritual teacher, your father and also your dharma, your faith.
. Ten is your karma with work, career,
your name and fame, place in society, in some cases frustrating, some cases
fulfilling.
You also have karma with your friends,
your community, your gains
And losses.
In these different
karmas, you would have to detach and find yourself.
In relationships and in
work, in gains, or losses, at home or in society, in your creative intelligence
or in your emotions, you would have to
observe the plays of karmas and find your Atman Self through it.
You would have to find
Your Self in Others in these different areas of your life.
Karma, Destiny and
Self effort
In life, we always have free
choice even though these choices are limited. It is said that the present
life and its circumstances is the result of past lives thoughts and actions.
What happens today is already predetermined even though we do not know from
when and and how things will manifest. However, this is not a fatalistic view.
In the contrary, we remember that challenges
in this life are opportunities for growth and for success in the future.
We might have free will but we need to think well about our
choices so that what we do leads us to peace and happiness and not to suffering.
When we are acting out of past habits and are powerless to change our character
and attitudes, we are actually bound and not free. Yoga teaches us Self effort
to control the mind and realize the True Self and be conscious and wise about
our choices, thus eventually free us from the tendency to produce the same
mistakes.
Managing karma implies that:
1. We care about our present duty,
2. We keep our eyes on our total and ultimate self-development,
3. We accept all tests and challenges in life as only temporary.
There is no Good karma and bad karma. Try to be free from all karma
Life is not only
challenges but there will be some good things happening and some bad. Life is a combination of both good and bad
karma. That means certain conditions
that we are born in are easy, things that we didn’t have to do anything and yet
they came to you.
There will be favorable
conditions according to what we wish and desire and there will be the
unfavorable conditions that we have to struggle with.
Keep even mind in all
conditions, in fact, good or bad karma is just karma. In reality there is no good or bad. There is no good life, no bad life, no
superior life, no lucky life, no unlucky life.
It is just specifically your
life and then you have to learn from it in order for you to be free from all karmas.
Life
is a series of pluses and minuses. You have to see the condition from the
inside, to understand the plus and minus in the karmic bank balance of your
life, not from the outside. From the inside means from your level of
consciousness. Your journey is the journey of Self Realization, towards
absolute consciousness of Oneness.
In this journey, you can record your debts as
the things that you yet have to learn, and credits as the things you have
learned.
Credit giving (+) Selfless actions, study, introspection, meditation. Anything
that helps us bring awareness will give us credit; Follow dharmic rules of
conduct is accumulating credits. Any action that will make us wake up is
credit.
Debits adding (-) : anything the makes us become more ignorant will give us debt. Any
action that will make us become thicker in our ego separation and illusion is
debt.
The balance of plusses
and minuses shows your progress and the accumulation of plusses can bring about
a total payment of all debts i.e. liberation from karma.
What means working out karma and paying karmic debts?
It means experiencing
the difficulties and slowly learning who the Self is and who it is not. For example,
regarding relationship karma, you have to go through the different flavors or
aspects of these relationships in order for you to learn the real lesson of
Pure Unconditional Love that is your Self. You would be selfless. You would learn Self Love that also includes
the other.
Suffering means learning.
Is suffering a must when
you are learning from karmas? Suffering
is subjective and is related to your reaction towards your karmas, therefore it
will be there as an incentive for you to learn.
Sometimes you want to
escape from suffering and not learn, for example you would escape in addiction,
in disease, in self pity and in blaming. Then you are not learning your karmic
lessons and you are diving deeper in the same way of seeing yourself and
others. However, life is a school and there is some kind of progress even
though different situations seem to be very different, but there is progress.
Paying debt, alleviation of karma is gradual:
Karmas are being understood slowly. You change
roles so you will learn. You suffer, so you will learn.
Alleviation of karma
means that you will refine your ideas about how you think about things. You
will become selfless and detached, and you would turn karma to dharma. You would take a distance and will not to
take yourself too seriously, be detached and remember that the True Self is the
Self and nothing can touch it, hurt it or taking anything away from it. You
will keep your peace of mind. You will
forgive and offer everything up in karma Yoga.
Your life is a result of karmas from past but you have choice
in the present.
In the present time, when you are aware, you
can do something about alleviating your karma.
You would have the choice, either reproduce the same situation as the
one you inherit from past karma,
or become wise about
karma and not reproduce again another karmic situation in the future. Sometimes
the lessons are intense and lots of issues come up at the same time. The
intense purification the world is going through during the corona virus
pandemic is an example when the karma is accelerating and we have no choice but
to face it. Try to see all these challenging situations under the view of karma
and try to be more aware of the consequences of our actions and rise to the
task.
You learn something but you create new debts.
In the process of paying
up your karmic debts goes very deep. It takes long term training to control the
mind and to stop reacting to the karmas, and create new karmas. For example, you
are locked up and you do not understand why you can not move about and do what
you desire. You fail to understand the universe’s lesson to you and others to
turn inwards and to change consciousness. You got depressed or upset and do
wrong actions.
Life is like a circle,
the wheel of karma, you learn something but you create new debts. It just goes on and on and on. You learn something. You don’t learn
something. You learn something. You don’t learn something. You just go on and on and on, classroom to classroom,
from lifetime to lifetime learning.
What is Karma Yoga?
Karma Yoga is the way to
work through karma by changing your sense of your self and the identification
with your actions.
In Karma Yoga your
motivation needs to be pure. Motivation stems from the heart, the true inner
feeling.
Develop
the attitude of being an instrument only, be detached.
Offer
the results: In praises or censures, in success or failures, keep the mind
even. It’s not about me, it’s not about them.
It’s not about whether I like them or they like me, it has nothing to do
with this. You offer the results of your
action, that means you offer this karma up in order for you to continue to progress.
Do
the best you can: Make effort but learn to let go.
Do
your duty and persevere, this too shall pass. Your karma dictates to you your specific
duty. There is no accident, no duty is an accident. If you follow your duty you
learn even though it is difficult. At every station in life, you have specific
duty. Follow the discipline of your duty and you will be learning greatly. Many
doctors and nurses actually now are going through intense karma doing their
duty, even risking their lives to save others. They are on the front line, like
in a war.
This reminds us of the
sublime teaching long ago of Arjuna, the warrior-disciple in conflict who
receives on the battle field the revelation about the immortality of the soul, the
teaching on karma yoga and duty and the self knowledge in action.
Every karma is unique
You can only understand
your own karma; you cannot understand another person’s karma. You can look at someone else’ s life so that
you can learn from them. The scriptures
say it is much better that you focus on your own karma and not someone else’ s,
even though it is easier for you. Let’s
say you have a situation that is really difficult for you to deal with, but a
friend will look at you and say,” I don’t know why you have such big
problem about this. If I am you, I’ll do
this, I’ll do that.” In karmic
difficulty, it is as if you are blind while another person can see your problem
easily. It is said that you can take
people’s advice, you can hear other people, but you yourself have to deal with
it. So don’t compare, it is not necessary to compare.
Turning karma to Karma yoga and find your life mission:
Dharma
is right living, right action.
Karma
Yoga attitude helps you to turn your karma to Dharma.
You can turn your karma
to karma yoga by being selfless and dedicating your service without
expectation. Your selfless service is unique to you. For you, it turns your
whole attitude around and touches your soul.
It opens your life up to new horizons.
Then,
you turn your selfless service into your life mission when you understand that
this sublime attitude has to be kept throughout life.
You cannot solve the
problem on the same level of consciousness that created the problem at the
first place, so your life mission is to go back to this place of selflessness
that will set you free.
Examples:
A
homeless abandoned woman opens shelter for homeless women and teach the women
self esteem and self confidence.
A
grieving wife due to lost of beloved husband to disease, speaks out about the
virtue of love beyond death, and becomes selfless worker to help people with
disease.
A
person becoming jobless and bankrupt due to economy crisis turns into a founder
of a company helping people to express creativity and improve earning through
wise capital ventures.
A
scientist who lost family due to virus now dedicates life work to study viruses
and to find cures and vaccines
A
political critical activist wanting always things to change now dedicating
oneself to nourish and care for ecology, relying on the grace of the Mother
Nature.
Take care of your duty in the present and the future will be
taken care of:
Dharma is duty. It is transforming your karma into an unselfish duty. It means putting the ego at the service of
others and the greater good. Not
thinking of ourselves first and only, but sharing in everyone’s happiness,
being an honorable contributor to the betterment of society, and opening
oneself to the whole of creation will turn karma into dharma. It will improve life in all aspects. The result is not necessarily immediate,
however; patience and knowledge of how karma works will see you through to the
benefits.
Yoga teaching says try
to be good and to do good all of the time no matter what the situation is.
Karma can be understood and released. Growing spiritually
requires that we turn our karma into dharma.
Dharmic Life Brings
Happiness
Happiness comes from Peace of mind and unhappiness comes from a
restless mind.
Yoga teaches the practice of restraint of thought waves to find
contentment and break through the karmic accumulation.
In the pursuit of happiness, we made many mistakes, and created endless
karmas. In our feverish world of competition, where everybody is looking for
answers outside, we believe that our happiness is in material possessions and
sensual comforts. We think that our happiness has to be at the expense of
someone else happiness so we compete and make sure we get the best place, the
best part of the cake. We fear that
someone else happiness is at our expense, and become jealous and envious. We do
not see the intangible, the spiritual, the sublime and divine. We believe in
external success and not in internal peace as success, thus we are being pulled
in all directions by our ambitions and desires and the disappointments, angers
that follow desires.
Yogis affirm that in order to find happiness, we need to achieve
peace of mind first. This means that we need to eventually recognize that there
is no end to desires, that the objects desired in fact are our own projections
of our own illusions externally. We eventually learn to turn within, avoid the
love and hate, the ups and downs, the
dual tendency of attraction and repulsion, always running towards
something and running away from something.
This is when Yoga and meditation come in our life, as we catch
the taste of peace and understand finally that it comes from within, and decide
to consciously make an effort to be calm and focused within.
How Yoga helps?
Classical yoga attributes equal value to self-effort and
relaxation. In Sivananda Yoga class,
students learn to come into a posture with control, hold it while breathing
into any discomfort or tension, and slowly come out of a posture with
control. There is relaxation and
breathing in between the postures and accent on self-awareness throughout.
Postures lead to Meditation. So,
practicing these teachings regularly will help to slow down and realize that
seeking happiness outside of ourselves leads us nowhere. Yoga shows us a way
out. By practicing regularly, your life
mission will be revealed to you.
Happy Easter! On this
meaningful day symbolizing renewal,
awakening and eternal life, we are being reminded of our infinite
potential, infinite inner resources and perfect love which always wins. This
holiday celebrates the meaning of life and this is the time for us to remember
the beauty and sacredness of our lives. Swami Sivananda said that the true goal
of life is to get back to the source from which we came. Just as rivers flow
restlessly till they join the ocean, the ultimate source from which they got
their supply of water, so too, we would be restless here till we become one
with the Peace in the True Self deep within.
In this constant flowing
journey of life towards Self realization, there are transitions and challenges
that we need to face graciously, taking these as opportunities for growth.
So we will be talking about:
1.how life is constant transition
2. how life has a positive direction, going in and up (and
not going out and down).
3. In this journey, we are
struggling but we are always progressing.
The more the struggle, the stronger we become.
4. We have the power of choice, we are not victims to
circumstances. In any given circumstances we still have the choice to move
forward in life. We need to exercise our power of choice.
5. Seven stages of conscious self transformation and
renewal. How to renew yourself consciously.
6. When our egos are rigid,
we have difficulty making choices and making decisions, paralyzed by fears and
anxieties. We can learn to make our life easier for ourselves by learning
faith, trust and detachment. Mistakes
are only stepping stones to success for a person who is aware and working
on himself.
7. Adversity is a perception. You can return to your untouched self.
You are the master of your destiny. The Self is supreme. Nobody did this to
you. Learn to become strong and accept the game of life. You and your
experience are one. “There is no world out there besides you”.
8. Everything is an opportunity for practice.
We are constantly in transition
Life is a journey. There is a
direction to life. We are always in transition, between stages of life. There
is a lesson to be learned at every step. Try to not get lost in the appearances
and illusions of life. Our destination is to realize our inner peace that
always has been here.
Different times of
transition:
Between life
times (this life is only a chapter in the book of your life. Everything is not
permanent.). Step back from your life and recognize the theme of this life.
Between stages of
life. According to our age and our maturity, we move through 4 stages of life,
we learn our duties at different stages: student stage, householder stage,
retirement stage, renunciation stage. Our struggles often reflect the lessons
we need to learn at every stage. We also learn that our psychology and needs
evolve with each stage of life.
Between occupations:
Our ideal occupation is the one reflecting our inner state of being, from being
unconscious with no self awareness, instinctive living, survival thinking and living only for enjoyment, to the idea of
a self centered self, making the best out of separated life, to being more
responsible of our fellow beings and our actions, and last, to becoming selfless, understanding our oneness and
acting out of the vision of oneness.
Between gunas,
moving from tamas (darkness), to rajas (activity) , to sattwa ( purity,
balance, wisdom) . Our journey is the journey of purification where we unveil
ourselves from our own veils and recognize the light and knowledge within.
Between periods
of our karmas . Our lessons are learnt in time and following sequences. According
to vedic astrology, our lives revolve from one karmic expression to another,
from dasha period to another where we have to learn : self confidence (sun);
psychology and emotions (moon), action and energy (mars) , intelligence and
reasoning (mercury) , righteousness and wisdom (Jupiter) , devotion and
enjoyment (venus) ,
Self
discipline and forbearance (Saturn), desires and compulsion (rahu) , detachment
and renunciation (ketu). Everything is set up by heavenly energies for us to
learn. The lesson of enjoyment is 20 years, the lesson of self discipline is 19
years, the lesson about desires is 18
years, the lesson of intelligence is (16 years) , the lesson of wisdom is 16
years, the lesson about the mind and emotions is 10 years , of energy and
action is 7 years, detachment is 7 years, ego self is 6 years.
Between seasons and weathers: Like the season revolving, winter gives rise to spring, spring to summer, summer to fall and return to winter. Life is cyclical. We just have to step back and enjoy the seasons changing and revolving. The changes of temperatures and weathers affect the moods, and our health. This contemplation helps us to accept change.
Between hours of the day: the changes we feel might reflect not only the changes of seasons, but also the changes of energies between periods of the day, the sunrises, sunsets, the middays. Doing things in the right timing would influence the outcomes.
Between waking, dreaming, deep sleep. Our daily landscape also keeps revolving between our different states of consciousness, the waking, the dreaming and the deep sleep state. The idea is to learn to become the observer, the witness to all these changing phenomena inside and outside of us.
In fact, we are always
transitioning and we indeed never stay still. We renew ourselves constantly. According
to Master Sivananda, “Life is a school,
in which every sorrow, every pain, every heart break brings a precious lesson.
The world is your best teacher, there is lesson in each experience. The world
is the best training ground.” Learn to be in the world and be untouched by
the world like the lotus flower growing out of mud.
The journey of life is going in and up,not out and down
“In” means inwards towards
our peace within and “out” means loosing ourselves in external concerns. “Up” means
feeling light and content, “down” means feeling restless and dissatisfied. Recognize
your path and renew yourself!
– from impurity to purity: learning to
accept challenges and pains as growing pains, we are cleansing ourselves from
our impurities , allowing the light and peace to shine from within when we
learn better behavior .
– from hatred to cosmic love: learn to hate less and love more every
day then we will be moving in the right direction.
– from death to immortality: If we think that we are the mortal body, we will be
gripped by the fear of death. By changing consciousness and by going deeper
within ourselves through Yoga and meditation, we become more detached from the
body and can feel the freedom and lightness coming from our eternal spirit.
– from imperfection to perfection: we might be disappointed at ourselves for not being
perfect or judging other people to be less then perfect. Eventually, we mature
and know that perfection can not be attained in this world. We do the best we
can in this relative life, and at the same time realize a level of ourselves
and of life that is perfect. Ultimately, we realize that all is at all times
perfect. We stop to try to make a better past, and live solidly in the present
where perfection can be found.
– from slavery to freedom: we might think that we are victim and that
we are bound in our lives to do things we do not like. We might have a wrong
sense of what is true freedom. Swami Sivananda said that freedom does not mean
eating anywhere you like, going anywhere you like, speaking anything you like
…it is found in self discipline. We are in fact slave to our desires and
senses. Yoga helps to slowly turn our bad habits to positive habits and realize
our true inner freedom.
– from diversity to unity: wegrow
when we learn to see the unity in the apparent differences. Example: seeing the
suffering of the whole humanity and not just one nation over the other. The
test we are going through now as a global community brings us closer together.
We are moving from the sense of separation to the sense of interdependence.
Open our minds and hearts to accept differences. Become less judgmental.
– from ignorance to eternal wisdom: we are learning to control our mind and emotions and
become wise amidst chaos and controversies. We learn to see the bigger picture
of our life and learn to avoid to repeat the same mistake and to create new
karma.
– from pain to eternal bliss: we learn from our pains and know that we have somehow
have forgotten ourselves looking for happiness in a wrong place. We eventually
learned that happiness is within and the answer lies within. We breathe, relax,
reconcile and forgive ourselves and others in order to be free from our pains.
– from weaknesses to infinite strength: Due to our weaknesses, we
have fears and attachments, and we create pain to ourselves and others. Life
journey teaches us to be stronger and stronger to face more and more demanding
challenges. Everything is a test of your strength and faith.
We have the Power of choice
We need to exercise wisely our conscious intelligence over our instincts and emotions
In that journey towards more
awareness, we exercise our intellect but often times we are being pulled in the
opposite direction by our habitual lower
mind. We want to learn and to grow but we are caught in our habits and
attachments. Our emotions pulled us to
the past and to the future but resist the guidance of our intellect. We forget
ourselves in the past and the future unable to live fully the present. We find
ourselves unfulfilled and stuck because we wanted to return to the secure past
and have difficulty to venture into the unknown. We are missing out our present
which is the key to our freedom.
We need help to make changes.
People with higher mind, who have
been where we have been can support us in our journey. Our conscious choice can
be backed up by our higher mind or the higher mind of somebody.
The seven steps of conscious change
Seven steps to transform our impressions in the mind.How to renew ourselves. How to work with our mind’s tendency to repeat itself. When we leave an old pattern for a new one, we enter the transitional ground that can be unsettling. We often resist new patterns for fear of losing identities we have carefully constructed. It is like a more evolved version of the old self, eventually leading to our true nature. We keep refining and purifying our mind patterns into healthier designs. It will become easier and easier.
1. -set
intention
2.- commitment to “work” on the unhelpful habit.
Conscious will to resist falling back on old habits, in crease in awareness,
bringing inner wisdom and light.
3.- slowing down to observe the mind, allowing greater
reflection and insight. Yoga practice helps you to slow down.
4.- awareness of unseen force that can hold us captive
in old samskara.
5.- fearlessness: tolerate unpleasant sensation – like
grief or fear of loneliness.
6. – envision new pattern. Visualize the new
discovered self when you do Yoga practice, when the mind slows down and relaxes.
7.- Practice. Understand what can trigger a relapse.
Difficulty to make decisions and to make choices come from fears
Mistakes are stepping stones to success.
When our egos are rigid, and
when we have inner conflicts, we have difficulty making choices and making
decisions, paralyzed by fears and anxieties. We can learn to make our life
easier for ourselves by learning faith, trust and detachment. Mistakes are only
stepping stones to success for a person who is aware and working on himself. There
is no such thing as mistake for a seeker, there is only lesson.
Adversity is a perception
Return to your untouched self. There is no others. There is no world besides you. You are the master. It is easier to say then done. In this time of adversity for many, it would be difficult to resort to wisdom of the Self and try to see the “rope” instead of the scary “snake” – to use the famous vedantic analogy. However, equip with this spiritual strength, knowing that all is well in reality, we can find courage to face the snake, face the worst imaginary outcome. Adversity can be a good trainer.
we
need to train ourselves to be strong, no matter what. In adversity, we need to get mentally ready
for what’s coming. We are not catastrophizing, only facing hardships in order
to do the right thing and not running away in fears.
By
negative visualization, we can mentally prepare for the hardships in life.
We
must face the hardship by imagining the worst outcome. Seeing the worst doesn’t
mean you are resigning your fate to it. In fact, it is the opposite. By seeing
the worst, you won’t bury your head in the sand and run from it in fear. So visualize the details of the possible
negative scenario: Imagine you lose your mother, or your son. Imagine, you lose
your job or your business is bankrupt. Let’s face the bad news and let’s come
up with the positive way to think about them. Let’s get ready “there is no way
out, there is only through”.
Confinement: This is the time to
turn inwards. Do inner practice. Meditate, become aware of your thoughts that
you have neglected when busy.
Overwhelm: Tasks changed,
parenting duties are overwhelming when schools closed. This is the time to get
to know your kids better. And be creative in terms of tutoring them and keeping
them structured.
Life plans changed: Events cancelled or
postponed. It is OK. We will appreciate the event better when the time comes.
It is not the worst thing.
Sickness and disease: I might get sick. I
might even die. It is OK. Death is not the end of life anyway. But if Karma is
the reason why I am in this body, I am not sure that I have completed my karma
I am in now, so I ask myself, am I ready to die or not? The prospect of death
will give meaning to this life. Death is not the only problem, there is death
when I am sedated with the ventilator machine that will take away my capacity
to be aware and to pray. And I know the last thought determine the next birth.
I rather be conscious, breathe the yogic way, light and slow and deep as much
as I can and die ready with the mantras and prayers on my lips. If I survive, I
might have to face being sick for weeks. It is OK. There must be meaning for me
being alive. I will fulfill my mission sooner or later.
People around me will
get sick and may be will die. Estimates are 40-60% of americans will be sick
and the US will have more than a million death. It is OK, it is not my will, it
is God’s will.
There will be riots when
people get desperate. It will happen but, it will not be that common so I do
not need to worry about it now. More often we will see people coming out of their
comfort zone to help. This is the opportunity for me to help others.
There will be scarcity of
commodities as there will be disruption in the supply chain. It will be short
term shortage. We will be fine with simple living. In Yoga and Ayurveda, you
can live very simple of kitcheree (rice and mung bean) and some vegetables. We
have had too much food, too much variety that come from all over the world. We
can return to the garden. Our health and appreciation of life will increase.
Economy will enter a recession. Consumer spending habits will
fundamentally change. It is OK. We do not need more stuff and this situation makes
that very clear. We do not have to consume and consume.
Borders will close. We will not be able to travel the way we did. It
is OK, by turning inwards and controlling our desire and imagination we learn
to be content with ourselves, with nature and people around us. We can connect
to people around the world more than ever by Internet.
There will be tension between countries. It is OK , the nations will
work their alliance with each other out. It is a game that changes all the time
anger, blaming, judgmental attitude,
rigidity , procrastination, blaming, lack of will, intolerance, lack of self
control , failures in turning the mind and senses inwards, lack of self awareness
, practice of being here and now, practice of doing little by little .
CONCLUSION
Keep flowing with life with
faith and fortitude. If you practice acceptance, awareness and detachment, you
will enjoy life for what it is: a school and a play. You will become better and better at it. You
can lose everything, but the main thing is you are not losing yourself! Swami
Sivananda said : “Any amount of zeroes have no value, unless you add the 1
before them”.
Satsang on line by Swami Sitaramananda April 8, 2020
Introduction
Today’s topic is a very appropriate topic.
It’s about stress relief counseling. The International Sivananda Yoga Centers are
offering a service of stress relief counseling for all, in 12 languages. So if
you see the announcement, please share with as many people as possible. Because
the situation of suffering and stress due to the epidemic is a global
situation. So we want people to be able to access the counselors who may be
able to support them through this period of stress.
You can imagine the situation. There are all
kinds of situations but you can summarize everything under the name of stress.
From the person that is a frontline worker in the hospital, trying to save
people’s lives; to a person caught up in their apartment living with a few
people, with their children and unable to move; to a person who worries about
the future, about their livelihood; to a person that is sick and struggling,
that is doubting himself and in fear of death; to a person that is separated
from the family member, because that family member is in isolation. So many difficult
situations that the world is going through. A very very stressful situation
that the world is going through.
So we’d like to have more and more people
understand stress so that you can help yourself and you can help others as
well. Because if you don’t understand the stress phenomenon then you might
aggravate your situation through a wrong kind of stress response. The problem
is also that you have adapted to stress. This means that your body and your mind
may take that as the real thing and lead to chronic stress. And if you are in
that stressful situation you don’t really know how to get out of it. The body,
the mind will adapt to that kind of stressful situation and response that is
physiological, neurological, and that also affects your immunity. At that time,
it is just a matter of time that the wrong stress response will perpetuate.
Because we are not just talking about now only, but we are talking about the
mind. When the mind learns something, it would keep keep repeating the
patterns.
The topic is so relevant because it is not
just addressing the problems now, but can also help prevent problems that could occur in the future. When
the stress has become numbing, and is not something that you can balance out,
it can become a mental health issues. As you know in yoga, we want people to
become balanced and clear, because that is how they connect with themselves.
Most of the reason for doctor’s visits are
caused by stress. Even before the health crisis was here, more and more people
are suffering from stress. We can trace
many of our diseases back to stress. Our immune system is weakened by
stress. So we are more susceptible to diseases and viruses of different kinds,
and we have less capacity to fight them.
Often we are not eating properly. Either we
are eating too much or not eating at all or eating anything. We are not aware
of our eating and diet. We are not sleeping properly. So many people suffer
from insomnia or from nightmares or even agitated sleep. We are not breathing
properly. Either we hold our breath in tension, or we are trying to gasp air.
The reason is that we have become fixated on the idea that disease causes
breathing difficulty. It is said that if we gasp for air, it’s because we don’t know how to
breathe or how to use our diaphragm to breathe deeply, calmly, slowly and in a relaxed
way. Thus we aggravate our problems. Let’s say you feel panicky because you
feel that you have some kind of disease and you start to breathe wrongly. At
that time it’s very important for you to get in touch with a yoga teacher who
can teach you how to breathe through the diaphragm and breathe slowly and
deeply in order for you to relax. We are stressed and we want to relax.
However, we breathe wrongly, so it makes us experience even more stress.
The situation of stress causes us to have
difficulties in relationships with people., resulting in all the symptoms,
including fear, anxiety, if we can recognize them, also irritability, grief, sadness
or even depression. We have talked about this before, so please refer back to
some of the teachings in the blog that talk about fear, anxiety and another one that talks about yoga of relationships, and how we can
take the opportunity of this time to improve our relationships. We need this
help so that we know how to deal with stress and how to help others.
The other point in this talk is about learning
how to observe ourselves and the environment and have a strategy to know how to
lift ourselves up and to change the environment for the better. That means how
to move from darkness to light. We have to understand the theories about the three Gunas- the very fundamental theory of yoga
philosophy. How to move from darkness to light then eventually to a place of
transcendence or understanding. You cannot really understand anything if you
are in darkness. That is the topic of today.
What
is stress?
First we will talk very briefly about stress,
What is stress? Our stress response is something that is built-in. It’s in our
system. In our psychology, nervous system, and in our immune system. All these
are all connected together. It’s a mechanism that responds to the perceived
threat to our survival. So the stress response is there so that we can protect ourselves
in some way. Later on we will talk about a little more how we can protect
ourselves and what the cause of stress really is.
The mind and the body is very
tightly connected. Whatever that we perceive in our mind will affect our body
and the body organs and their functions.
So we can develop so-called psychosomatic disease due to stress.
There are three different types of
stress response, fight, flight and
freeze. It depends on the personality. Fight, flight or freeze, but it’s
all the same. It depends on the temperament of the person. Some people may have
more tendencies to fight when they feel stressed or to control. Some people
might have the tendencies to escape the problems. And the other person might
have the tendency to try to disappear so that nobody notice. They freeze, become
paralyzed, becoming smaller and smaller.These are the three typical types of
response to stressful situations depending upon your constitution and
personality.
You can say that according to ayurveda there are three
kinds of personality, the fiery personality (pita), the airy personality
(vata), and the more water and earth personality (kapha). So you can say the
fight response is for the pitta, the fiery nature. The flight response is more
for the vata kind of nature, namely running away. The kapha people will have
the tendencies to become inert. it’s just a very rough explanation.
If the stress response is prolonged then it will lead to chronic stress
and eventually to disease and break-down. Normally we
have the relaxation response built into our system. It’s alternate. You can be
stressed and you relax. Stressed and relaxed. Sometimes it is impaired, because
sometimes you are stressed, stressed, stressed, keep holding the stress and
responding to stress and you can never relax. So very important that you learn
to relax.
The most important thing to
understand about stress is that stress
is subjective. Something that might stress somebody else might not stress
you, or vice versa. It’s subjective, it depends on your mind. An objective
stressor, is something that causes your stress, but your personal reaction is
due to the habitual thoughts and emotions in your mind depending on your perceptions.
It’s your personal way and habitual way.
So the teaching of
yoga will help you change your perception. People think wrongly that your ego
self is always the same. That is denying the
fundamental essence of life, that we are constantly evolving and
constantly changing. Every challenge is an opportunity for us to evolve a
little. That means to let go the preconceived ideas about ourselves and about
others and to get ourselves out to the light a little more.
The more we are rigid the more stressed we are. The more we are open
and flexible, the less we are stressed. The general
guideline is to try to be open and to be more relaxed. Most people believe it’s
an external stressful situation that causes stress. But you can see now you are
in quarantine, some people think it’s very stressful because they cannot do
what they like. But some people will be welcoming it because they have time to
do what they like and to do what they need to do. Because normally they can
not. We think that everyone will be reacting in the same way as us but it’s not
true. Everyone reacts differently. The outside environment is the same but the
reaction is different.
How we
perceive an event place a significant role in whether the stressor triggers our
stress response or not.
5 causes of stress and how yoga helps:
1. Lack of prana (vital energy) from nature:
People are more stressed when they don’t have prana to deal with the challenge. To think or to understand we need prana, the vital energy. But when the lifestyle is too artificial we tend to spend prana. We are in the economy of debt, so that we all the time spend but we don’t take time to recharge. At that time we won’t be able to deal with stress or challenges because we are already in debt. At that time we might go into bankruptcy. We might feel sick when a thought comes. Like I’ve said, it’s a perceived threat. A thought just comes and suddenly you collapse, because you do not have enough prana due to your lifestyle from before. So the pressure builds up and we cannot handle it, our immune system is compromised. We can imagine that our modern world is very much so. It’s making us more in debt. It doesn’t enrich us. We live in high-rise buildings. We are all the time in the car or in the traffic. We are subject all the time to noise, to pollution and our mind is also very much full of thoughts and desires, so we call it the rajastic lifestyle. We overuse the computer, the cellphone. We don’t eat food properly, we don’t take time to eat, we eat out and we eat frozen food. Of course in the situation that we are now in, we can’t really find our proper supply and that can also add to the question of prana. We have to do the best we can in the current situation. Try to understand that we can supply our prana in certain different ways. From foods and also from our proper thinking. The idea is you need to live in alignment with nature to have more prana, so be in the sun and eat the food that is closer to the sun. We don’t go too much into this part about prana because we have a separate talk about that. Just know that when you counsel people about stress or when you feel stressful you can recognize right away that you are lacking prana. So you are not responding correctly, and you will have to build up prana. There are many different ways to build up the prana according to yoga.
2. Negative emotions create stress:
There are some negative emotions within you or within the person that you counsel or people that are around you that are stressful. You can tell right away there are some negative emotions. Any unhealthy relationships and expectations will create stress. We have a lot stress due to relationships. Our relationships are not necessary healthy or loving, so we have to understand or help people to understand the emotions and the antidote of the emotions. There is some training possible we can learn and other people can learn. So don’t take the emotions as yourself. The first thing is recognizing and developing the awareness of our emotions. The awareness itself helps. The moment that you know that I’m angry, because I feel let down I don’t get what I want. The moment you know that and automatically by being aware of that, you do not become attached to that thinking or that scenario, and can be yourself. Awareness allows detachment. That awareness already helps to alleviate the problems, so when you are counseling people, you help people to be aware. You don’t have to solve their problems, but just because they become aware of it, automatically, their mind will think correctly and the problems will be solved by themselves. Negative emotions will also drain the prana. So that’s why people go down and down. The negative emotions can also be how people think they are. Because they have been building the personality for a very long time. Like I said, different stress responses vary according to different personalities. A person may be very fiery or might be all the time controlling. The person might be all the time not facing situations and not facing themselves. They distract themselves. They escape. A person might be acting as if they don’t know and not doing anything, because they are used to being fearful and stressed. Sometimes you can live in an abusive family relationship, for example, that makes you feel all the time, since your childhood, maybe unworthy, victimized and powerless. It’s not that simple to help a person to get out of stressful situations. Because the roots can be very deep in the psyche of a person. Yoga helps you to open the heart so then you can become more in touch with the love within you. Everyone has love, but the habitual negative emotions might be veiling you from the love that is true and within you. Yoga makes us open our heart and withhold our judgement of others. We are very quick to judge others and close our heart. But by practicing yoga, we can keep our heart open. Yoga also helps you deal with your emotions by reminding you of your true Self that is untouched and unhurt; that is fulfilled; that is perfect; that is independent; that is transcendent; that is free and joyous; that is non-competitive; that is one without a second. Beautifully said. One without a second. That means when you don’t feel separated from the others, at that time you can go to the essence of yourself that is one. And automatically all your negative emotions vanish. Of course it’s easy to say but it’s something we have to keep working on. We need to identify the negative emotions and use yoga techniques to take care of them.
3. Adaptation problem:
The third cause of stress, which is very relevant now is the adaptability question. We said already, the more you are open and flexible the less stress you will experience. The more you are rigid the more stress you will have. We need to adapt. We need to let go of ownership. Ownership means you identify very much with something, either objects or accomplishments. You have difficulties to adapt because you falsely identify with something that is impermanent. It’s a very big thing. Swami Sivananda says, ”Adapt, adjust, accommodate. Bear insult, bear injury, highest yoga.” That’s how Swami Sivananda talks. We need to step back. When you feel something is difficult, you need to step back. Practice detachment. Stepping back from whom? From our own selves. Our own ideas and identification about whatever we feel, whatever we identify with as the problems, or whatever we identify to be the cause of our miseries. So we need to detach. Step back. Stress happens when there’s a failure of adaptation. When we fail to adapt, it’s because we are attached. Instead of detachment, we attach to something. We attach to who and what we think we are. We attach to our problems or how things should be in relation to who you think you are. The attachment problem is the misidentification. We think or experience something and we might be attached to it. We attach to our past. We attach to our stories. We attach to our dramas. That creates stress. Or when things change we become stressed. You see nowadays things change so quickly, and we are stressed. That’s everybody. Unless you are really trained for a very long time, and you have to be really flexible. When things change we become stressed. When we cannot adapt to new situations and when we are constantly expecting things to be in conformity to our expectations, we are not able to adapt ourselves to them. So yoga says, “ A flexible spine, a flexible mind. “ All the time we are training ourselves to be more flexible in our body and also in the mind.
4. Uncertainty and existential anxiety:
How Yoga helps to alleviate stress by giving us flexibility in outlook about Self and others: The common problem for our time that causes stress, and the reason why so many people are stressed now, is the idea of uncertainty. Uncertainty and existential anxiety resulting from the fact that you see many people dying around and the disease may come to your door at any time by any body, and in that it’s invisible. At that time you have anxiety. It comes from the fear of death and from disease. When you are there and your life depends on the government that decides if you can move or go back to work or so on, that creates stress. Then we face something we call uncertainty. That creates stress. When you study yoga you have to go deeper. It’s not only about yoga exercise, but you have to go deeper into the philosophy of yoga. Because it helps you to alleviate the stress and give you flexibility of outlook about ourselves and others. Uncertainty has always been there, it’s not a new situation. We don’t really know what can happen. We don’t know when we are going to die. We don’t know. Anything can happen. Earthquakes can happen. Tsunamis can happen. Accidents can happen. So nobody really can predict or control life. We have an illusion that we can control until something happens and we realize that we are not at all in control. So we need to learn how to live this life which is constantly changing. Changing day by day. Even the body is constantly changing. My white hair did not come overnight. It came little by little. The body is constantly changing and we are facing the transition. That creates a lot of anxiety. Because we see people dying and we see more and more which reminds us how fragile life is. We can be taken very very quickly. We turn around and somebody can be taken very quickly. You look at the statistic today, so many people are dying. It’s not like before people didn’t die but now it becomes very clear. So we have to think more about it. Existential anxiety exists all the time, and we have to resort to some kind of deep realization, deep understanding or deep thinking, in order for us to be able to be stable in ourselves.
We have to learn to see the absolute. The level of ourselves which is untouched. At the same time we have to be able to live in this world of relativity, at the same time remembering a level of ourselves is immortal and untouched. The yogi develops the capacity to be flexible and to be able to change perspective about him or herself, and to avoid obsession and stubbornness. To try to depersonalize things. Don’t think it only happened to you and dramatize it, but try to understand the reason, that can be quite involved, for any kind of stressful situation. We can very quickly deal with our existential anxiety if we have some kind of faith. You know in a correct manner it’s not blind faith but faith in a correct manner, faith in your true Self and in the supreme intelligence. The more we have faith the more we can deal with our existential anxiety and our uncertainty. Because we don’t know, and we cannot control. But everything is always happening for the best. So you can relax. We know we are supported at all time by the invisible hands of the divine. That is also something we can train ourselves into thinking. The practice of yoga helps to connect to the Divine. And if you remember there’s that level of the soul that is sat-cit-ananda, the Atman. That is free, that is not hurt, and is untouched by anybody and that whatever people think about you, you are perfect. So there’s that level of ourselves that we need to get in touch with. Otherwise we will be very anxious and fearful. You see there’s already many reasons why we are stressed and we can’t escape it. We have to think about it. The challenging situation is that we have to think about it more. Now we say okay when we have time we will think about it, when everything comes back to normal we can think about philosophy. But that’s not correct. It’s in the challenging time that you need to take the opportunity for wisdom.
5. How Yoga helps redeeming karma:
It’s more or less the
same idea that nothing happens for nothing. Something happens always for us to
have the opportunity to learn something. What we are experiencing now is the
results of our past actions. And what we need to do now to redeem our karma is
to see it, accept it and redeem it and not repeat the same wrong thinking
again. It is said that we are born to experience the results of our past karma,
past thoughts, past desires and these are our lessons. So this is why to some
level, our problems and our challenges are inevitable. What does that mean,
inevitable for us? That means that whatever happens to us is specific for us.
We need to learn our lessons and cannot escape from it. You can blame people
and try to deny it. But unless you do some soul searching, and see your own weakness
and your repetitive patterns, you would not be able to learn that karmic
lessons. It’s said that we are born and our life is set up. It’s all set up. So
that we can experience it. And sometimes we think think that somebody set that
up. You look at the recent events and you can see. Some people get stuck in
some countries they cannot move they cannot go, suddenly they cannot. You see
all these are all karma. You step back and see why is it so. You step back and see
this is why you need to accept. It’s not that you are fatalistic about it, but
you need to face it and make the best out of it. Because it has in it
something, a lesson about ourselves. Not the neighbor not the others not our
family members but exactly something we need to learn. The same situations and
a group of people will experience things differently, will react differently.
Because of their patterns. And they need to learn from their patterns. That is
called the deep level of karma. That’s why it’s very annoying. When something that
we think should not be there is there again, right in front of us, and we think
it’s very stressful. So the deeper level of stress is that situation. Everyone
has to go through their karma. The karma can be collective karma as well. So we
are all together on the planet of earth in this time. So whatever we do to the
environment whatever we think it’s civilization and we develop dependency
towards technology and our life changes quickly. It’s karma. I myself don’t
want to deal with any of these. The cellphone, the internet. But now I found
myself on the internet, have meetings on the internet and all these things you
know. I studied it’s difficult for the eyes burn your eyes and it drains your
prana. I remember the first time I talked in the meeting on the internet or
something I feel very drained. Because my world was different I didn’t know the
internet I didn’t want to use the internet before. I never used these things.
But the whole community the whole life everything the whole world is moving
towards that level. And now I have got used to it. So now it’s not so draining.
Because somehow we develop a different kind of nervous system. So the whole
world is evolving very quickly and who knows what the situation now is
preparing us for. We go back to the question of karma and stress. We can share
together the collective situation and bear together the results of our
collective actions.
So to summarize, stress is an indicator and a teacher that we need to think about a
given situation to rethink who we are, about our expectations and our
motivation and to remember this is not the real Self. We need to try to
lift our consciousness through teaching, through training so that we go to the
root cause of the stress. So as a yoga teacher you have to be humble, knowing
that you do not know and surrender your will to God’s will. And Yoga life
teaches you the different practices that combine the four paths of yoga to
destroy the root of karma that comes from wrong thinking and wrong doing, and
to give us the positive and sattvic life, that’s the teaching of the Sivananda
system, “ Serve, love, give, purify, meditate, realize. “ the four paths of
yoga. That’s the first part of the talk today about stress and the cause of
stress. So that you can counsel yourself and counsel the people around you.
The 3 Gunas ( 3 qualities of nature)
Another theory that comes from the yoga
philosophy that will help you is the theory of the three gunas. Now we are
talking about the theory of the three gunas as the guideline for us to move
from darkness to light or to help people move from darkness to light. Regarding
the the topic of stress, there are three
types of reaction, depending on the gunas. The gunas are tamas, rajas and sattva. These are the Sanskrit
terms that explain how the whole universe and nature can be seen and
characterized through all these qualities. There is the quality of darkness, tamas; the quality of
action and movement is rajas; and the quality of purity and balance is sattva.
If you yourself can try to recognize within yourself the qualities and try to
recognize the qualities in the person that you counsel as well, if you can
really master the way of seeing then you will know how to do, how to counsel a
person. The guideline is that people
will respond to stress depending on the gunas, so they can have a tamasic
response to stress, a rajasic response to stress and a sattvic response to
stress. The counselor yourself has to help the other person to move from tamas
to rajas and to sattva.That is the key, the main guideline to whatever problems
we find in ourselves or we find in others. You
will have to break through the tamas, the darkness; calm down the rajas, the agitation
and the projection. You would have to cultivate the sattva which is nourishing
the quality of balance harmony nourish and balance. That is the main guideline.
But before that we can just try to see a
little bit the concrete manners how a tamasic stress response can look like.
Tamasic stress response:
When a person is lazy, slothful, they don’t
care. They don’t take baths and even throw the clothings all over, and the
room, the house is completely disorganized. They don’t clean and they don’t organize,
that is called the tamasic response. That can also come as a stress response.
“I don’t see anything, I don’t find a way out, I don’t understand anything
anyway, so I don’t care.” So you fall into that idea that ”I don’t care”. And
then you become indulgent in food, eating anything. “Why do I care about my
life and health, it can be taken away anytime anyway so I don’t care.” You
indulge in too much eating, too much sleeping, and being passive. You spend too
much time watching movies or watching news. You become passive and no longer
participate actively or become aware in your life anymore. You give up your
life and you go into watching movies and news. You cannot grasp reality
anymore. When people are so much in virtual reality, then they can become
depressed. That’s also an expression of tamas. You become depressed and you
become fearful. Fear and anxiety is an expression of tamas which make you lose
yourself.Then you can become complacent, therefore, you hide and go into
denial. You feel you cannot do anything, you deny your happiness as well as
your abilities and you live in darkness.
You also notice the tamas when people complain
about others. They know something has to be done but they don’t do it.“Why
don’t you wash the dishes?” But they themselves don’t wash the dishes.They complain
that people around me are this and that. That is the tamastic attitude. The
victim attitude means always somebody is doing something to me. So I’m not
responsible for what is happening to me.
Living in the past is also an expression of
tamas. All the time you talk about the past, you know, living in the past, so
that’s is the tamasic attitude. Some people cannot stick to any routine, any
schedule. For example now they have to create their own schedule and routine
but they cannot do it. They cannot discipline themselves or turn inwards. It’s
impossible for them to do yoga or to do meditation, because they cannot follow
any kind of routine. They can be suicidal. They can be escape into drugs, these
are all tamasic experiences. They think taking marijuana can solve their
problems. They become relaxed and think that there is no problem. So it’s also
a tamasic attitude. I also see nowadays people drinking bleach. They are afraid
of the virus and so they drink bleach to prevent the virus and they kill themselves.
These are the tamasic stress responses. You want something quick and you don’t
work on yourself but want something external.
Rajasic stress response :
The idea is the ego is very strong when you
are rajasic. When you are the victim of the rajasic view then you separate
yourself from the rest of the world. So you become angry because the way things
go is not the way you want. So you can become angry. Anger is the rajasic
response. If a person is depressed and they are not moving or not doing anything,
ie. no eating no anything, then it’s better that you encourage them to be
stronger in their opinion about things so they can become angry. But somehow
it’s better and afterwards they can calm down. So the idea is to get away from the tamas and calm down the rajas.
The rajas is somehow easier because you can calm them down through yoga.
The rajasic expression is they can become
angry, and people can become violent. When the situation stays the same and
there’s no change, people may start to become angry with the government; become
angry with the neighbor and they can even become violent. So that’s the rajasic
response of the stress. I learned something that is very disheartening, that
many shops are closed in LA but the gun shops are open. They are allowed to
open. This is quite disheartening, it means people feel insecure and uncertain.
We will talk about insecurity and uncertainty. How they are going to make
themselves safe and secure is by buying guns to protect themselves from the
neighbors. This is the rajasic response to stress.
There is also the blaming attitude. The
blaming attitude is rajasic. You never really look at yourself and always blame
somebody that creates the problem to you. Accusing, pointing fingers.
The hoarding tendency is also the rajasic
expression. You want more and more. The greediness, the hoarding of the
material stuff. You think it gives you more security.
Also you see that there are some people that
don’t hesitate to break rules. They don’t like the rules.
The me and mine attitude. Anything that is
about me and mine can cause the rajasic attitude. Try to temper down the rajasic.
Any selfish kind of idea, that I enjoy myself and I get what I want. The rest
of the world can suffer but I don’t care. This is the rajasic attitude.
Regarding disease, some people may try
different kind of medicine that is called the rajasic way. They will try this
and that and they will get a cocktail of medicine. The more medicine they get
the better it is for the disease. They don’t look into the holistic natural
healing that comes from themselves, but for something external.
Now regarding the social distancing. Many
don’t think a lot of the whole, which means they only think about themselves.
Some people still go and party on the beach while people are struggling in the
hospitals. Rajasic means like you cannot refrain from movement and excitement,
sensual pleasures and egoism. That’s the rajasic attitude. And constantly you
are just enjoying your life with the senses.
Spreading misinformation is also a rajasic way
to try to solve about the problem. You blame, and you create a whole theory
about the problem, or you try to control completely control. You try to make
money when other people suffer. For example you try to boost the price of masks
when other people are suffering. You boost the price very high so then you can
sell this. You try to take advantage of others to gain name and fame and
wealth. This is the rajasic attitude. So try to temper this down.
Sattvic stress response :
This is what we like to cultivate in ourselves
and in others. This life in peace, in harmony, in health that would remove us
from fear, from reaction so that immediately we gain peace is the sattvic
response. So the sattvic response is that we are seeing the bigger picture. Not
only seeing the picture that you feel yourself but seeing the bigger picture
that everyone is going through. To have clarity and to have knowledge because
it’s based on openness of the heart, and so you need to be able to be selfless,
to be able to be helpful to the situation. Be charitable. I see that in Las
Vegas people are sleeping in a small square that is painted on the ground. They
are doing social distancing by staying in their square. It’s shocking to the
eyes to see that. At the sametime you know in Las Vegas right now, there must
be thousands and thousands of empty rooms in the hotels right now and at the
same time you see people sleeping in the parking lot in their little square. So
that is called rajasic, it’s not sattvic, it’s not charitable. So we also hear
some news of some landlords completely forgiving people for their rent at this
time. So these are charitable understanding kinds of attitude, we call it
sattvic attitudes, we need to cultivate. So whatever we have we need to share.
You might have to sacrifice today not to eat your favorite food, so that you
can share in the suffering of so many people. And then you stay at home instead of not caring and going out to
buy your specific favourite food. If you don’t care about consequences this is
called the rajasic, tamasic attitude and not a sattvic attitude. In the sattvic
attitude, you are charitable and you see the bigger picture. You are prayerful
because you recognize there is something that is bigger than anybody and you
pray to that. This is sattvic. You are forgiving. People make mistakes and you
know it’s because they don’t know or they are stressed. So you forgive them.
You surrender to God’s will to see the big picture and accept it. You practice
yoga. You practice deep breathing. You practice relaxation. You practice
mindfulness, awareness. You practice meditation. You try to get information
from authorized sources and not to seeing different kind of news that is going
on that can excite your mind. These are all examples of the sattvic attitude.
You keep in general a positive attitude about things. You accept that there are
events that you cannot control. You exercise regularly. You eat balanced meals,
these are all part of sattva. You learn to manage your time more effectively.
You set limits and learn to say no to the requests that would create excessive
stress. You have to learn to say yes when you can, and that is the balanced
attitude. You make time for your relaxation and for your hobbies. Now you can
learn to do yantra painting. You can learn how to sew some masks for other
people so you can give out for free. You do something helpful and useful. You
use your hobby to balance yourself. You can be assertive, it’s sattvic, but not
aggressive. Aggressive is rajasic. Assertive, being yourself is sattvic. You
assert your feelings, your opinions and your belief, but not becoming angry,
offensive, and passive, for example, not saying anything but turning everything
inside and getting angry. Everything in this universe is operating through the
three gunas. We need to start to see things this way. The gunas operates in the
physical and the mental and the emotional level and obscure our true nature. So
beyond our true nature, beyond the gunas, beyond the things happening, there is
a consciousness of the reality that is beyond denial, beyond the darkness,
beyond actions and beyond even the harmony of the balance, which is completely
pure, which is ideal. But right now what we want is to nurture at least the
sattva. Because in that sattva, in that harmony, we‘re be able to perceive the
light within. The consciousness or what we call the Atman is always there. We
seeing things as if through crystal. Like the crystal, when you put it by the
colors it will take all the colors. It looks like the Self is lost in what is
happening, but we need to be able to distinguish that the Self is always there.
It can never be lost. The mind is colored by the darkness and by passion so
that we cannot see or recognize ourselves.
That is the ultimate counseling for yourself
and the others how to recognize the Self. Yoga teaches that you are not the
body, you are not the mind because it’s changing, you cannot depend on it. Even
our body you cannot depend on. Ultimately, if you can talk to yourself or talk
to others the higher level of philosophy, then it’s great. But at least you can
move people from tamas to rajas to sattva. From darkness to some level of
harmony. Have them have a little bit detachment towards their thoughts and
feelings. Because know that thoughts and feelings are always veiling. Like
today,the sun is there but the clouds are veiling, so you cannot see the
sun.You get a little depressed and think that the sun is not there, The sun is
the Self. The sun is always there.
Tamas
is the resistance to change, Tamas is the veiling. Rajas is the forceful change. it’s
external-oriented and ego-driven. It’s extreme control. It makes us attached.
When we attach, we become fearful. Then
at that time you know that you need to calm down. Tamas, you need to move it, shake it up, get out of it. Rajas, you need
to calm down. And sattva, you need to nurture. So that’s always the key. You
need to do it. Often rajas and tamas are together. When you see fear is
there, you become more attached. Fear, is tamasic you won’t be able to see that
your Self is there, and you become more attached to things. You think that if I
have this thing I will be secure myself. So tamas and rajas go together. From
fear comes attachment and from that come defensiveness and then stress. Because
the more you have that “me and mine attitude” the more stressed you are. The
more relaxed you are the more you are resting in your own Self, and the more
you won’t be subject to stress and will not become fearful because of the
change. People are also attached to the actions thinking that this is my way.
People say, “My way, or the highway. “ If you become dutiful, there’s a
different story. Sometimes you know there’s a rigid action, that’s rajas. So we
need to calm down. It’s not like you can become a saint or liberated or become
free from any of these. But you need to calm down. If you feel that the rajas
is going on in your relationship and so on, you need to calm down. Relax is the
key. Relax. And if you feel like you are hiding away or getting out of this,
you need to do some action, get out of it. You take a walk, you take a shower,
you do something. That’s the guideline. I hope so far now you get the
guideline. How to deal with tamas, how to deal with rajas, and how to
constantly nurture the sattva. The
sattva is the wisdom the acceptance. The acceptance in whatever you cannot
change and change whatever you can change. Do
whatever you can do and accept what you cannot change. That is the sattva.
The sattva allows you to be peaceful. Whatever has happened, you can be
peaceful in any circumstances and you can make wise choices. And then you
become selfless. You carry on
becoming devotional. Some people lose their faith because of rajas. Some people
who don’t have faith at all, that is tamas. Then some are rajasic. They say
that God is doing this doing that and then they are very happy when it happens.
But when something changes they blame God. Why did you did this why did you do that.
You see that is because they are rajasic, they are attached to their own view
of God or what God can do. We use the word God but really, we don’t know. Our
ego cannot know God. So if we surrender
ourselves we would be able to see the bigger picture. So that’s why the
cultivating the sattvic faith is
important. Because we cannot control all that we know. There is something that
is taking care of things. Keeping the
devotion, keeping the discipline to control the mind. Keeping meditation and
detachment. Keeping the self inquiry. If you do self inquiry you will never
be bored, it will keep you busy and get you out of your habitual way of
thinking.
Summary
Our journey is to transform ourselves from
negative to positive; from restlessness to peace; from darkness to light. Peace
of mind is happiness, but peace is difficult to attain, because our mind is
always changing. We have to be steady, regular. We always go and look for the
happiness outside. Remember the story of the lady looking for her needle
outside when she dropped the needle inside. So the remembrance of the
tendencies is sattva. We always look for happiness outside, and blame others
for our problems. It’s been our tendency for a very long time. So we have to
keep remembering ourselves, keep practising. (Abhyasa Yoga) Know that the truth
lies within, so turn inwards.
There’s a quote from Swami Sivananda, “Fear not. Grieve not. Worry not. Your
essential nature is peace. Thou art an embodiment of peace. Know this. Feel
this. Realize this.”
You will know your own tendencies and know how
to guide others and bring a different perspective.
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