In
this webinar we will be talking about Yogic
classical meditation. This is the system of 8 limbs Yoga of Patanjali
Maharishi, where meditation is limb number 7, and Samadhi- the state of
superconscious is limb number 8. Classical Yoga (Raja Yoga) includes ethical
behavior , (1) the behavior to avoid (Yamas) and (2) the behaviors to adopt
(niyamas) (3) the yoga postures (asanas), (4) breathing exercises to control
prana (pranayama) (5) and the turning inwards (pratyahara) as the outer steps
of Yoga practice. The inner steps are (6)
concentration (dharana) and (7) finally meditation (dhyana).
It is not the purpose of this seminar to talk in
details about each of those steps or limbs but to focus on the understand what
is meditation is and what meditation is not in order to (1) remove false
preconceptions of meditation bringing confusion, fears and short term attempts and
(2) to clarify what is the yogic meditation practice. It is a known fact that
people associate yoga with physical exercises and not as meditation practice to
calm the mind, release stress and achieve peace . In fact Yogic exercises are
part of the meditation practice.
Why
meditate?
In this time of uncertainty and stress due to
collective effort to try to suppress the spread of the virus, governments and
nations put their whole country, states, cities , under lock down modes .
Normal activities are interrupted and people stay home with more time in their
hands and consumed by worries and anxieties.
In this time, meditation practice or the turning inwards of the mind to
find recharge and new perspective about one’s life and one’s self become imperative.
In this context, learning correctly meditation is necessary and removing of
prejudices and preconceived ideas about meditation is helpful.
The purpose of meditation is to find inner peace.
Inner peace will lead to strength of mind and
character and bring about increase capacity to remain calm under challenges .
From the capacity to remain calm , the individual will
not loose him or herself in fears and panic and thus leading to wrong reactions
which bring the individuals down further more and perpetuate one’s already
habitual negative vision.
To know more about the mechanism of fear and anxiety
and how they make you loose your capacity
to be your happy and creative self , see my past talks on
the topic published in the blog www.sivanandayogafarm.org in last week satsang on the topic of fear or
faith.
Inner peace can
not happen if the mind is constantly turning
outwards and keep
ruminating about the past regrets or the projected fears about the future.
Inner peace can not happen if one is worrying about our material survival only.
Inner peace can not happen if one is lack of self confidence and is dependent of everything external to be happy and to find meaning.
Inner peace can not happen if we do not have good relationships with self and with others, if our heart is closed and we are blaming others, judging others, if we are full of negative emotions such as anger, grief, guilt, hatred, greed, jealousy, lack of contentment.
Inner peace can not happen if we are swayed by our insatiable desires, and in the situation like this one, when our desires and expectations can not be fulfilled, our inner peace is replaced with frustrations, resentments.
Inner peace will not happen if one is distracted and restless, lack of concentration, when the habitual goal and motivation are being questioned ( for example when one finds oneself jobless ) and one’s schedule and habits are being changed.
Inner peace can not happen if one is sick and lack of vitality.
Inner peace can not happen if one is desperate, have no faith and connection with the supreme intelligence.
Meditation
technique :
Conditionning the
mind, give instructions to be here and now. What is the mind? A lake, a drunken
monkey, a wild horse, a shy lady, music record, a fast fan , a needle with
petals, relationship mind and body, relationship mind and breath, relationship
mind and senses. One thought at a time. Mind works with names and forms, works
with association.
Preparation:
space time.
Posture- erect
and comfortable.
Breath – deep
and long
Breath rhythmical and calmer and calmer till breathe
becomes imperceptible.
Point of focus- 2
places of focus to choose from
object of focus-
mantras. Learning about mantras
observer/witness attitude
detachment attitude. Not fighting with the mind.
Return to focus, to the breath, let go
Become
silence and peace. Meditation is like an elixir or tonic renewing oneself.
Meditator,
object of meditation and act of meditation become one.
What
meditation is not
Meditation is not imagination, meditation is not
relaxation, meditation is not dreaming, meditation is not seeking for
experiences. Meditation is not a quick fix. Meditation is not wandering in the
psychic world. Meditation is not seeking for extra sensorial experiences.
Meditation is not just sitting closed eyes without
caring for one’s responsibilities. Meditation is not escaping from reality.
Meditation is not achieving a goal. Meditation is not selfish endeavor.
Meditation is not just technical and dry. Meditation is not religious even
though one might have spiritual experiences. Meditation is not seeking for
spiritual experiences. It is important that the meditator follows guidance from
a teacher and practice step by step all the spiritual instructions.
What
meditation is practicing the 5 points Yoga life.
Meditation is not just sitting half hour a day closed
eyes and expect something extraordinary to happen. It is part of a meditation lifestyle, called
Yogic lifestyle or integral Yoga life. The 5 points of Yoga Life as per swami
Vishnudevananda are: Yoga asanas, breathing,
relaxation, vegetarianism, positive thinking and meditation are part of this
meditation life.
Asanas practice help to still the mind, remove
blockages, allowing prana to flow.
Pranayama practice purifies the nadis and balances the
mind, and helps to bring the mind to higher dimension. Conscious relaxation either
done separately or along with the asanas practice basically helps awareness and
teaches us detachment, ultimately detachment towards our body and mind itself.
Proper diet in particular the practice
of vegetarianism gives us life force as we consume food that is high in prana
and is alive , also helps us to alleviate our mind through the practice of non
violence and respect of animals. Positive thinking practice allows our mind to
keep going with meditation and keep seeking higher truths. The ultimate
positive thinking is in fact the assertion of our true nature. I am not the
body, I am not the mind, I am not this separated identity … I am existence
absolute, knowledge absolute, bliss absolute. I am pure consciousness. There is
always a positive perspective in all happenings. Positive thinking practice
allows the meditator to turn things around and to detach from the thoughts and
the emotions. Meditation life is practice little by little but everyday all of
these 5 points so that the mind becomes pure, transparent, strong and stable
ready for self enquiry and ultimately realization. Perfecting oneself in these
5 points Yoga life in fact is meditation practice in itself. You become aware,
centered and clear . In fact, meditation life is not separated from the
dedicated sitting meditation practice. There are infinite ways how you can improve in
the 5 points. That is why it is difficult to give up meditation once you
understand the intricate relationship between the different practices, all
under the banner of “meditation”. In reality,
the quality of the sitting meditation will influence
your waking life and the quality of your waking life will influence the quality
of your silent meditation.
Meditation
is practicing the classical 4 paths of Yoga.
Meditation life includes all the 4 paths of yoga. It
means perfecting oneself in these practices or qualities:
1. Karma Yoga – a selfless attitude towards
life and towards meditation, the offering of one’s actions so we renounce being
in control and avoid to tie ourselves further into the chain of karma.
2. Bhakti Yoga – a humble attitude towards life
and towards relationships, seeing them as opportunities to learn to curve our
ego self and join each other in love. Also practicing Bhakti Yoga means purifying
the lower emotions, sublimating the lower desires and returning to pure love
and respect for all. This devotion and
faith to the Supreme will make you calm in all situations and help one to self
surrender one’s limited view to embrace the unknown. The meditator leans to be
very flexible and soft in his meditation practice.
3. Raja Yoga: – an awareness of the mind and a constant practice of one pointed
concentration which eventually will remove the separateness and duality to
become one with all. In daily life, if the meditator is aware of the mind and
constantly endeavors to keep the mind focused on positive goals, the meditator
builds up strength and forbearance necessary for advanced stages of meditation.
Awareness of the mind ‘s behavior and constant coaching it back to the center,
can be a tedious and at the same time rewarding practice. The ethical
foundations of Raja Yoga , the yamas and niyamas, prescribe numerous virtues to
do and vices not to do that can keep the meditator busy for a long time. As
Hatha Yoga is considered to be part of Raja Yoga, one can start to control the
body, the breath and the senses to improve concentration and reach meditation.
These practices in themselves are rich and interesting, so the meditator can
actually be creative with his /her life daily routine without the feeling
of wanting to give up due to boredom or false conception that one knows it all
already.
4. Jnana
Yoga: – a sense of knowing of what is real and true and what is changing
and illusory. A general attitude of detachment and wise attitude coupled with
the self confidence and self affirmation of who am I truly from inside. A
vision of oneness and unity in diversity.
Integrate
meditation in daily life
Daily routine
Daily schedule
Little little
Obstacles to
meditation:
Aimless wandering;
Cessation of practice
Health and diet
Laziness and sleep
Complications of daily life –undesirable company
Useless conversation
Self justification
Lack of preceptor
Mental obstacles: anger, depression, doubt, memory,
fear, greed, hatred, Loss of vital energy.
Experiences
in meditation
Stay detached from experiences of cosmic mystic Sounds,
lights, forms , feelings of separation, cosmic consciousness.
An on line satsang with Swami Sitaramananda 03/30/2020
Introduction:
Today we will introduce you to a new way of thinking that
will help you to feel strong in the time of fears and anxieties due to epidemic
Covid 19. We are facing an unknown
“enemy” and our daily life is being put to a halt. We feel that our health and
wellbeing are being threatened.
We are faced with uncertainty. Existential questions long
time not dealt with, come to a surface. Now is a great opportunity to think
deeply and find peace and strength through a new understanding of “who am I”.
This new understanding of ourselves and our environment shed light to our
problems of fears and anxieties and makes us feel stronger.
The practice of Self enquiry:
Asking the question “Who am I?” and breaking the habit to be yourself.
Vedanta philosophy is a powerful philosophy coming from the
ancient Vedas. It gives us new insights and solutions to our problems.
It says that we need to solve our problems from
a different level of consciousness than the one we are familiar with.
It is about seeing our own self and our environment
differently.
To do so, we need to think deeply and endeavor
to distinguish between what is unchanging and what is changing.
Something unchanging is real. Something changing
is illusory.
To get to the unchanging, we need to question
what we believe about ourselves and our perception of the universe we see
around us to be true.
The whole meditation exercise is about asking
ourselves “who am I?”
And breakdown the false identifications- You do
not know who you are, but you know who you are not.
What remain is the “I”
By doing so we recover the Self and feel
stronger and happier.
We free ourselves from sufferings and fears
resulting from our attachment to the false Self.
We realize it is a habit we carry for a long
time
Therefore the meditation needs to continue over
time
We become more and more detached
It takes strength and sharp intellect to do so.
Our habitual mind keeps
reproducing the past illusions
Things are not the way we think them to be. The reality we see is the reality of our mind projections. The classical story of “snake and rope” illustrates well our situation. In the darkness , this person saw a snake and jump in fright. Someone who is not afraid of snake brought the light to shine upon the snake. Under the light, It turns out that it is a simple and innocent rope. The rope looks like the snake but is not the snake. The rope did not become a snake, and the snake did not become a rope. All what is happening is in the mind. The mind has already the fears of snakes, therefore projected “snake”. One’s thought and memory is being superimposed upon the truth. In the same manner, in the darkness of our spiritual ignorance, We keep seeing scary and stressful things. And reacted in fears.
When we dare to enquire, the knowledge sets us free. As we see things as they are and not what we imagine it to be.
Why do we keep seeing
the same thing?
In order to really be free, we have to revisit the past illusions Personal and collective In order to wake up. Revisiting our scares and fears And see them for what they are. Not real, In our mind. Become familiar with our mind patterns Help us to recognize them. We keep seeing the snake But also become stronger with time As the memory of rope becomes more and more established and we can transcend the vision of “snake” to see the “rope” Our fears resulting from our weakness become more and more Known And we become more and more stronger. Self enquiry helps us to do so.
How to unveil the
Self and be free of the habit to be ourselves?
First, you are not the body: Upon asking the first question “Who am I” The first answer is I am the body The body is made of the 5 gross elements Earth, water , fire, air and ether. It is made of food We are born with our constitution There are 3 types according to Ayurveda, the ancient science of medicine You can be solid , earthy , supportive and steady , made of Earth and water You can be fiery , sharp , active , inquisitive, made of Fire You can be quick, sensitive and moving like air in space The body constitution gives the predisposition To think and be this way or that. We are not seeing the same thing. As our constitution veils us.
However whatever constitution or body type we are, The body is born, grows, decays and dies At due time It is not meant to be forever, It is not ourselves As it keeps changing. If we line up different photos of ourselves At different times of our lives, From being a baby toddler to an adolescent, a grown up, an adult, and photos of ourselves in our thirties, fourties, sixties The body looks totally different in size, shape, weight And yet we pointed out to each photo and recognized the same “me” exclaiming “ this is me!” , “this is me” ! Think about this, there is a “me” that is not the body . The body is our instrument In our journey, Not ourselves. Mistaken identity with the body gives fears and anxieties Specially the fear of death. The body journey is a chapter in the book of our lives Not the whole story.
I am not my gender, male nor female I am not my race, black, white, yellow I am not my age, young, old, older I am not my physical beauty or appearance I am the driver of this body vehicle. I am not the color or shape of the vehicle I am not my muscles, my bones, my lungs, my heart My arms and legs My nose, tongue, eyes, skin, ears I am the driver of this body vehicle And these organs and limbs are my instruments I am the subject and these are the objects. I am consciousness and not the sum of body parts. Detachment towards the body Not overly worry about it as yourself But as the caretaker of the instrument Gives you strength and health. Free you from the fear of death Which is paralyzing In this time of virus threat.
The second
identification is with the prana – life force
The prana energizes the body and gives it life Prana is changing, sometimes low, sometimes high Balanced and unbalanced Prana comes with the air we breathe The earth, water, fire, and etheric space. We can identify with what we feel, Energetic or tired Strong or sick Blocked or flowing Acting and enjoying Moving here and there Or staying still and shelter in place But we are not our prana, life force. So be aware, take care of your prana Do pranayama to purify and regulate your prana and emotions, but we are not the prana. Therefore stay detached from it.
The third
identification is with our mind and emotions.
Who am I? I am worried, angry, fearful, joyful, sad, grieving. Our states of mind and emotions Kidnapped our identity We lose ourselves in our emotions. And become what we feel. The senses are connected to what we feel And keep us revolving between pleasures and pains They set the stage for the mind and emotions to play Its comedies or dramas But comedy turns to drama and drama turns to comedy Snake turns to rope and rope turns to snake Nevertheless, the sense of I is lost, drown in the emotions Of all our relationships Which make us feel ups and downs, Happy and unhappy Loved and separated Stay still, turn within, Happiness is within Love is already there Calm down, detach I am not the mind and the emotions.
Fourth, I am not my
ego and intellect:
I can tell the story of my life Over and over again To one person, hundreds people, thousands To my children, grandchildren, Yet I am not my story Even though I might be attached to it. My story even well rehearsed From life times to life times Generations to generations Keeps changing As my lessons keep changing. I keep acting out what I think myself to be. My level of consciousness My level of self awareness My level of being the silent witness To myself. My understanding of who am I Separated or connected Isolated or together Alone or involved Unstable or stable Worthy or unworthy Proud of accomplishments Better or worst
Achiever, intelligent or a failure, My level of self knowledge is changing Therefore it is not me, the unchanging. Truly, there is something beyond the ego stories That can not be described This is who I am, the background of things, The movie screen On which the movies, stories play And yet unaffected Detached Witness I am . The calming of the mind and the ego, The realization of the silent witness The observer of my thoughts The consciousness awareness itself Makes I feel strong I found myself and not losing myself When I detach myself from my stories And stop justifying Myself. I am not my ego.
My fifth level of
identification is more subtle
As it speaks about my purpose. As my question becomes deeper, I realize that I have been there, done that For a long long time. The purpose of this birth And its lessons Is revealed. As far as the “I” is Conditioned, attached My sense of purpose is distorted. Now I realize the purpose of this birth My journey is From karma to dharma And I am blissful and happy No more fear No more separation No more doubt No more agenda I am consciousness and bliss. I am free
Meditation is
thinning out the veils:
Seeing through the illusions of self and others. Turn within and solve our problems from A different level of consciousness. It can only get better We are not loosing anything Only gaining in strength and courage To face our lives By being ourselves. This meditation and Self enquiry are forced upon ourselves In this time of crisis when all established habits are being questioned, And reinvented. The more the veils are thin, The happier and steadier we become. The more this world will come to peace As we understand that myself and yourself are one. Unity in diversity. Celebrate our interdependence And let go of our fears Clinging to the past Projecting in the future
There is only one
Truth
There is not your truth and my truth Because both are only reflections. There is only one sun Reflected in many surfaces Reflected in rock surface, the light shines little Reflected on water, it becomes distorted with the waves Reflected on wood surface, the light is dim and stable Reflected on shiny mirror, the light is bright and the image sharp. There is only one consciousness The same in all beings Whether mineral, animal , human , superhuman, We are one The differences are external But the essence is one.
We do not know the
truth and act out of ignorance
Forgetting the big picture, Forgetting to do self enquiry Forgetting the search of truth Forgetting our purpose We become greedy, senseless, abusive towards animals, nature Not thinking, not respecting Constantly Creating pains to others For our own pleasures. This time is the time, We need to wake up and turn inwards, Question our ways Cease to blame, But taking responsibility Stop the killing Of innocent animals Their abuse and torture Become vegetarian Stop the wasting of resources And the appropriation Of planet earth Stay still and Meditate Everything you want is right Here and now.
There is only one
truth
We are waves of the same ocean We are clay becoming different ugly pots and beautiful vases We are gold turning into different shapes and forms of ornaments We are spirit and consciousness in the guise of different classes of man Corona virus is equalizer Can affect rich, poor, statesman and beggar the same, What ever you are and where ever you are. Start our self enquiry Listen to the teachings of the scriptures And the wise of all times Even if you can not understand completely Try This is the time for us to practice this meditation wake up and Learn what you can To Remember ourselves Stay away from past and future Be in the moment present See the essence and not the manifestations Respect the differences as it is in essence one. Come back to unconditional love Of Self and Others The Love and the Truth will set you free!
In this webinar, we will
address the question of how to be with ourselves and be happy no matter the
outside interpersonal conditions and collective conditions (social distancing,
be in isolation or working with groups, living with families and community, in
intimate relationship, being alone or in search of close relationships). We
will discuss strategies how to transform our negative emotional patterns into
selfless love through the practice of Yoga applied in daily life. We will also
discuss the Yogic way of how to uplift and spiritualize our relationships.
Why we need to practice
Yoga of Relationships?
In all our relationships, we aspire
to be loved and to love all the time and 100% but we fail to feel the 100% all
the time. We suffer from needs unmet, separation, losses, anxiety,
disappointments, inner and outer conflicts, difficulty in communications, lack
of empathy and compassion, resentments and anger, attraction– repulsion,
emotional swings and also suffer from the paradox of wanting to lose oneself in
love and yet wanting to be in control. The problem is between Self and Others and how to find
ourselves through relationships?
What is Love?
Swami Sivananda said that “Love is the goal of life. Love is the law of life. God is Love and Love is God. To love is to
fulfill the law. We live so that we may
learn to love in the eternal”.
My teacher, Swami
Vishnudevananda said about love: “Catholics,
Protestants, Jews and Arabs, white and black–we can live together. Educated
people, uneducated people, contractors and businessmen, ordinary Swamis and
Yogis–we can all live together, eat together, and speak together. We can live
our life in a very universal way. This is love, universal love.”
Peace of mind leads to Love.
Happiness comes from
love. However true happiness is not temporary
and emotional and is not the satisfaction of desire but the fulfillment of our
soul longing to be united with the Supreme. We need to have peace of mind and
have Self Knowledge in order to experience love. By finding Peace within
ourselves, we find Love. Yoga is the science to find peace.
Love is oneness, union,
unity, yoga.
All humanitarians in all
countries talk about our shared humanity. In time of crisis, we united in our
efforts and prayers. In these times, we looked at the World Health Organization
statistics and we cringed, no matter from which country we are from, infected
or not. ( to-date 413,467 people infected from Corona virus, spread in 197
countries, with a death toll of 18,433 ). Someone said” The virus reminds us
that we are all connected, that something that affects one person has an effect
on another, that our false borders can not stop the virus that doesn’t need a
passport”. This is the situation demonstrated by Swami Vishnudevananda in his
boundary breaking peace missions, long ago. We are one, regardless of our
culture, religion, occupation and financial situation.
Our human condition is separation. We suffer from separation in all different levels, in
our interpersonal relationships and globally, between nation and nation. And we
all long for union. We need each other and yet we constantly have conflicts
with each other either in our families or in our trade laws and national
identities and borders.
Yoga teaches us that we are
far more than our ego and we are happier when we can get out of our egoism. We
all know that great feeling when we are one with somebody or a group, when we
can let go of our individuality and feel oneness and not separateness.
Separateness leads to a feeling of isolation, of not being supported or loved. Our
suffering is based on the mistake to think that this separate personality is
the one to be loved but we forget that to get love we have to offer love, and
to love is to cease to be a separate personality.
Our personal stories of love and
split and our collective history of war and peace represent the ever-present
drama of our Karmic lessons unfolding, experienced as an individual or as a
group. Karmic lessons mean learning from our mistakes and slowly coming closer
to the Truth of who we are. Nothing is by accident. People we encounter or circumstances that we
find ourselves in are only opportunities for us to serve and to love. We
receive the same lesson, either from the point of view of the individual or
from the point of view of a nation. We all evolve and come closer to the Truth
of who we are. Vedanta philosophy teaches unity of consciousness, how to
realize that we are like waves of the ocean but the waves are not different
from one another and the waves and the ocean are one. Yoga philosophy helps to
free us from the suffering coming from this apparent duality and this split we
feel between Self and Others.
Selfless love is to be learned
Our relationships are
opportunities to learn selfless love.
Selfless love means to see the Self in others and see divinity in others
as well as in one’s self. It means not
seeing the differences, but seeing the essence, the commonness that is One,
realizing Unity in Diversity. It is our belief in our separateness and
individuality that makes us function in a selfish manner. We believe in a
separate life and our idea of freedom in doing actions only out of our own
will. We believe that our perception of who we are based on our personality is
real and we believe that the characteristics of our ego is our real value.
Unconditionnal love is selfless.
To achieve peace and unity,
to heal ourselves and our humanity, we all need to learn that level of Love that
is selfless and unconditional. We need
to cease to identify with our ego-self which can only leads us to conditional love,
egoistic, selfish relationships. We need to learn to transform our emotions to
pure love. Emotions come from our lower mind and our subconscious mind which
carries impressions of habitual limited love of the past. Yoga teaches us to purify the lower mind and
to activate our higher mind. Yoga methods teach how to transform our emotions
into devotion or pure love
Emotion is not love
Love
is at the root of every emotion. If we have a lot of emotions, we find that it
is difficult to express
and at the same time to repress. People of emotional nature, would need to do
more Bhakti Yoga to transform emotions. Transformation of emotions is not what
commonly being taught. We are taught either to express or to repress. Both lead
to emotional problems. Yoga says that we need to develop our higher mind, our self
aware mind in order to guide our lower emotions and to pay attention to
justification using our intelligence to justify our basic desires and emotions.
Emotions
are a form of love but distorted.
Conditioned love and egoistic love lead to negative emotions instead of
bliss.
Let’s recognize our common
negative emotions experienced in relationships. Let us bear witness to the spiritual
darkness and the egoism and abuse seen time and time again, in families,
couples, races, cultural, religious groups and nations.
Negative emotions need to be converted to positive emotions and from there to pure love.
Let’s go to the root of the negative emotions and learn ways how to be free
from the sufferings come from them. Apply this to your personal situation as
well as to your relationship with a group or a nation.
Anger comes
from unfulfilled expectation or desire.
Antidote:
Let go of
expectation
Be grateful of
what you have
Surrender and
accept our differences
Let go of control
Practice patience
towards self and others.
Mitigate, calm
down, slow down our desire
Remember the Self
that is fulfilled and content.
Fear:
Fear come from attachment and
can be paralyzing in our forgetfulness of Self.
Forms of fear: Fear of death, fear of being alone, fear of public criticism,
fear of loosing, fear of pass trauma and pain, fear of separation….
Antidote:
Courage to face
our fears and be free of them.
Faith in oneself
and in the universal intelligence and the universal love and protection
Detachment
(opposite of attachment) and remaining in oneself.
Self-Enquiry to
remove habitual false identification and past wrong impressions
Self-confidence based
on inner strength not on ego
Self-reliance –
be able to count on oneself and live self sufficiently with oneself
Attachment
True love is not attached but
detached. Attachment comes with fears and anxieties. Attachment comes with
identification with some external traits of oneself which we recognized in our
friends and loved ones. Attachment makes us falsely feel stronger in our
relationships. People can be attached with each other and nations can have
alliances with each other. Attachment separates and fails to see unity. From
attachment, comes our defensive mechanism and stress. Individually we are
stressed and as nations, we are stressed. We defend our way of life, we defend
our borders, we defend our space, our opinions. Attachment leads to suffering
under the disguise of binding relationships.
True love is warm, free, liberating,
selfless, and yet detached. Detachment
does not mean rejecting or not loving, or not being strong, not knowing
oneself.
It means learning to see the higher Truth about the Reality which encompasses
Oneself and Others. We do not have to loose for someone to be happy. No-one has
to loose for us to be successful. Individually, we need to open to this True
Self and collectively we need to see Oneness. The reality of the pandemic
teaches us our unavoidable interdependence.
Hatred
comes from love turning in
the wrong direction.It isthe opposite of love. Again the same logic applies, we hate what we think
that is not ourselves and we limit ourselves to certain idea we have about
ourselves. Yoga philosophy acknowledges the root causes of our afflictions, the
fact that our minds swing from love to hate, from attractions to repulsions,
all due to our lack of higher understanding. We tend to blame externally for
our miseries and project our blames and hatred to someone or to a country
different than ours. We tend to not look inwards, to realize the necessity to
grow out of our limitations and intolerances.
Antidote:
Practice
compassion
See the self in
others
Do Selfless
service
Practice Love in
action
Cease the blaming
and the victim attitude.
Share
responsibility for caring about our environment, either our home or planet.
This will open the knots of the heart based on egoism and prejudices that
corrupt love into hatred.
Desires and passions as obstacles to love and unity.
To find peace and love in our
relationships and in the world, we need to control our desires and passions
ingrained as our instinctive habits. In the current situation in the world, we
witness groups of people pleading to others to observe social distancing and
not to go out to parties, games, entertainments in order to save lives and help
the health workers. What a perfect illustration of interdependence. We all have
to control our desires and passions and we are forced to be calm, to go inwards
and to find higher form of enjoyment within ourselves.
Antidote to desires
Devotion to the
Divine seen in others.
Be aware of our passions
stemming from reproductive instincts. Keep pure motives.
Identify less
with the body and with the separate self. See yourself be part of a larger
body.
Transform outward
lustful instincts into selfless love for humanity and respect of all, men and
women.
The virus doesn’t
spare young or old, for young people, more restless and passionate, they need
to practice Yoga daily to sublimate sexual energy and restlessness.
Eat calm food to
control desires, animal flesh will reinforce this passionate tendency
Lead a harmless
life, respectful of all creatures.
Greed
Greed comes from our desire
for safety and fulfillment twisted into insatiable illusory desire for material
objects. Remove greed to find safety and fullness inside. Greed destroys
compassion, generosity, charity, altruism and make us commit crimes against
humanity.
Antidote:
Charity and
giving
Contentment
Practice of
gratitude
Renunciation
There is plenty
for everyone’s needs but never enough for anyone’s greed.
Envy
Envy comes from lack of
acceptance of our karma and what comes to us by God’s will. A person can envy
the other and compete with the other, becoming unhappy when the other is happy.
Such competition exists also in the level of a group or nation.
Antidote:
Acceptance,
turning inward, not comparing.
Reminding
yourself that everything is due to our own karma. All is perfect
Forbearance and
humility and learn our own unique lessons
Remember that God’s
love is abundant for all.
Jealousy
Jealousy comes from sense of
entitlement, possession and exclusiveness in love relationship. Jealousy is experienced when the beloved changes
loyalty.
Antidote:
Evolve your
relationship into a more inclusive relationship
Generosity,
giving
Forgiveness
Remember passion and
attachment is not love.
Healing emotions
How to heal emotional wounds
and free ourselves from negative mental patterns and suffering coming from past
habits of conditional and selfish love?
Self Love
To heal from emotional scars
and patterns we need to learn Self-love and Love of God. Self-love brings acceptance and makes the
mind turn inwards to find Happiness but not outwards towards somebody or an
external condition. Self-love or turning
inwards to find one’s Self will make you stronger to be able to realize the
love within that has always been there.
Self-love is not
egoistic. It is the lack of self-love
and awareness that creates the patterns of need and dependency leading away
from peace and love. Self- love brings
about self-respect and self- discipline.
Love of the Supreme seen in all
Devotion to the Supreme or to
Humanity as Divine manifestation helps us to relax, to self-surrender, to
become humble, to break through our egoistic limitations, our emotional
patterns and our identifications. It
helps us to surrender the ego, to accept and heal our emotions. The current
global crisis is a perfect opportunity for people and nations to become humble
and to behave not individualistically but humanistic ally, globally.
Love is personal and starts from within
In ourfast paced, materialistic life, we need to learn to develop love
and fulfillment. We need to practice love in all our affairs daily, in all our
interactions. We can start with Love of our chosen ideal, our chosen Beloved,
in the cave of our own heart. It brings back the presence of love in our heart
which is blocked by our identifications with our separate self. Love of our
chosen ideal is a most intimate sacred feeling and not a display or social
conformity. Love of that chosen ideal transcends religious conventions and
rituals. It comes from within and cannot
be imposed from the outside. It is our own inner aspiration and longing for
union. Attachment to external form or religious symbols is just a help and not
a goal in itself. Through practicing unconditional love towards our ideal form,
we learn to self-surrender and to transcend the external forms and come closer
to God or pure love itself.
Our chosen ideal of love is the quality we seek in
ourselves:
Our chosen ideal of love can
have the quality we seek: purity, eternity, knowledge, true inner power,
beauty, perfection, bliss, righteousness. One
can choose the chosen ideal according to our own temperament or according to
which aspect of the divine you feel the closest with. We all have the desire
for Perfection.
Healing through respect and love of the Divine Mother in
Nature
We can recognize the Divine
manifestation in all names and forms, underlying life. We can see Humanity as
Her form. We can see her everywhere as the energy of intelligence, of knowledge,
creativity, wisdom. She is also the energy sustaining life and health, energy of
peace, love, harmony, virtue, righteousness, beauty, prosperity, and wealth. In
another form she is the core of your inner strength and fearlessness and will
protect you from harm. This is the time to together pray for her grace.
Her forms are countless. Therefore,
respect others ways to truth. Names are many but God is One. Paths are many but truth is One.
Yoga of relationships is to be practiced daily with
all
Learn to see God in our daily
interactions and relationships and cultivate selfless love, thus growing in
closeness to what we long for and growing in oneness to our ideal of pure love.
There is no other
All relationships are truly
relationships with your own Self. There is no separation in reality. We are all
learning love through being aware of mental habits. Ourmind reproduces impressions of past relationships and we carry
with us patterns learned in childhood and past lives. These conditionings can
be very deep and our relationship karma difficult to resolve.
Yogic teachings on karma say
that we choose our father /mother and life circumstances to learn our relationship
lessons. We are learning to see the One Self beyond our egos interacting with
each other.
Discipline of mind and heart
We are all perfect inside but
our minds need to be molded in order for us to be able to reflect the
perfection and the love that is within us.
Self Enquiry and Self Love
We need to do self-inquiry to
become free from past impressions and correct the pattern of reproducing past
relationships. We need to find our core relationship with love itself beyond
names and forms. Turn within and find ourselves and start with Self Love. At
the same time, cultivate Divine love in relationships to free us and achieve
lasting happiness.
Nine traditional ways to cultivate selfless
love in dailylife. Apply the
the nine traditional ways to sublimate emotions into devotion and overcome
egoism according to the teachings of Bhakti Yoga.
Listen to inspiring Divine stories – Develop the capacity to listen to others without
judgment. Be honest in what you say
about yourself.
Sing God’s glory – Learn to praise others and look for their positive qualities and one’s
own positive qualities.
Remembrance of His name and presence in prayers – Learn to hold people you love in your heart in a
prayerful mood, feel the sacredness of relationships by being detached and
forgiving. Be grateful for all people
whom you interact with in your life.
4. Service
with humility – Learn to actively serve everyone as God whether you like them or
not.
5. Worship – Learn to see God in your relationships, offer your time and presence
and beautiful gifts as if they are being offered to God.
6. Prostrations – Learn to give the utmost respect to people you
encounter or people surrounding you no matter who they are.
Cultivate the feeling of being a servant of God – Learn to
develop an attitude of self-sacrifice.
Cultivate feelings of friendship of God – Learn to open your heart equally to all, without ulterior
motives and discriminating who is higher
or lower than you.
Complete self-surrender – Learn to accept all things happening to you with
equanimity and overcome your own expectations or judgment about anything done
by yourself or others.
Conclusion:
May we endeavor to maintain
our remembrance of our true purpose, which is to return to a place of no suffering
through strength, wisdom, through trust and faith, in other words, a place of
fulfillment without desires, of love without selfishness.
Through
Selfless Service and Selfless Love may we liberate ourselves from desires and
greed, and find our True Self. May we live in the spirit of Karma Yoga, doing
our duty and yet learning the basic duty of finding Love of Self and Love of Others
as One.
May
we improve in all our relationships, taking this opportunity of turning inwards
and rethinking our values and priorities. In our network of relationships, may
we become all great father, mother, daughter, son, teacher, student, husband, wife,
friend, lover, beloved, care taker, neighbor, boss, consumer, statesman,
leaders, servants of humanity and of the planet!
All is at all times perfect
May the whole
world attain Peace and Harmony!
Asato Ma
Satgamaya Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya – Mrityor Ma Amritam Gamaya
Om Purnam Adam,
Purnam Idam Purnat, Purnamudachyate
Happiness, Health and knowledge requires energy. Lack of prana brings depression, stress and darkness. In this time of pandemic , it is critical to know how to increase prana, how to not loose prana and to prevent infection and diseases and how to heal.
What is Prana?
Prana is life force,
vital energy that allows you to be alive and function in this world.
When prana departs
from the physical body, death comes.
Prana is necessary
to live and to progress in life. It is prana that you are attracted to in a
person. Everything is alive at different degrees. There is more prana in a real
flower compared to a plastic flower. There is more prana in live food fresh
food than in canned food or old food.
It is prana that
makes you feel enjoyment and feel fulfilled. Your quality of life improves
through improving the quality of prana.
What is important to
know is Prana is all-pervading in Nature.
So if prana is
everywhere and abundant, then why at times, do you feel dead or deprived? why some people got disease and some did not
? People says that it is age, that some age group people are more subject to
disease but may be it is the condition of their immunity and the level of their
prana?
May be because they
do not know how to plug-in to the universal source of prana and recharge. And
may be because there are blockages in the flow of prana through thoughts and
lifestyles.
5 things everyone needs to learn to do with prana:
Increase
Conserve
Balance
Channel
purify
1 & 2 How to increase and conserve your prana.
You
need to know that it is not sufficient to increase prana but also you need to
conserve and limit the expenditure or wastage of prana to be healthy happy. It
is the same as with money, you can make money but you spend it all and is
always with no money or with debts.
Time to look at our lifestyle now more than ever, how do we use our
senses and what do we do.
Learn that You can get prana from the senses or deplete prana from the senses
.
You can get prana
from your actions and deplete prana from your actions.
From the knowledge
of Yoga and Ayurveda , please see the table showing the correlations between
the elements of nature,
the sense organs and their functions
and the organs of action
and their functions
Smell NoseEARTH AnusElimination
TasteTongueWATERGenitalsReproduction
Sight EyesFIREFeet
Moving
Touch SkinAIRGrasping
Hands
HearingEarETHERTongueSpeaking
Increase prana through the earth element.
Do: Live in Nature, live in natural houses, respect nature,
do gardening.
Walk on earth, touch earth, hug trees, look at mountains,
forests.
Make sure that you eat prana food, fresh products from
earth.
Limit: Spending too much time in cities, concrete buildings,
sidewalks, cars, high rises, plastic materials,
environmentally harmful products, trash.
Action to avoid: too much eating . Make sure that you
eliminate well.
Increase prana through the water element.
Do: Drink clean pure water. Our body is made of 70% water. Our
body is sensitive See research of Dr. Emoto. Eat sweet fruits, honey, pure
milk. Avoid dry food.
Wash with clean water; Bathe in oceans, rivers, springs.
Limit: Beverages such as sodas, coffee, alcohol
Know that you spend prana in sexual activities.
Increase prana through the fire element.
Spend time daily outdoors in the sunshine. Open doors and
windows to let sunlight in.
Drink warm water.
Eat warm food.
Good digestion requires the fire of digestion being strong.
Avoid cold food, being exposed to cold.
Avoid too much looking at computer screen and get artificial
energy from eyes.
Avoid too much moving (quarantine and not travel is actually
very good for health)
Increase prana through the air element.
Live in clean fresh air as much as you can.
Ventilate rooms, houses.
Stay away from pollutants like traffic smoke, cigarette
smoke.
Breathe deep. Do pranayama breathing exercises daily.
Avoid artificial air like in airplanes, air conditioned rooms.
Touching baby to give prana to baby. Therapeutic touching is
giving prana. Careful of sensual touching to conserve prana.
Avoid grasping, hoarding, shopping, as these depletes you
from prana. In the contrary, giving gives you prana.
Increase prana through the ether element.
This is the subtlest element and the most powerful .
Yoga taught that Prana
is in our subtle body and is connected to thought.
Positive thinking
gives prana, negative thinking or emotions drain your prana
Chant kirtan, repeat mantras, exercise positive thinking, indulge
in prayers, search company of the wise, visit of temples, places of pilgrimage
(of course now in quarantine you might
not be able to visit your church, temple, places of worship)
Avoid loud music, bars, clubs, crowds, undesirable company. (Amazing,
many countries start first with closing unessential places like bars and
clubs.)
Avoid negative thinking, selfish thoughts, base thoughts
(try not to blame and have racists thougths in this time)
Pay attention to what you say. Try to say helpful words in
writing or verbally.
Repeat mantras is the best action.
IMPORTANT to
remember:
Prana deficiency seeks stimulation.
Beware of the spiral downward movement when you are lacking
prana. Many diseases, addictions and bad habits start with prana deficiency
Prana debt brings stress.
Stress makes you reach out for instant gratification through
self-medication or compensation which lead to Pains.
Stress is the cause of many diseases.
3. Prana needs to be balanced, not just increased
The main focus in
Yoga practice either in asanas practice or breathing practice is balance. We can also exercise balance through
changing our attitude and our way of functioning. The goal is to attain a state
of integration, called equanimity.
To be healthy and
happy, we need to learn to balance our energies individually and also
collectively. The world is imbalanced and stressed.
When we are imbalanced, it is like we see reality lopsided
because we have a lopsided vision. The imbalance is often times between the
emotions and the intellect, that means a person would be left brain dominant or
right brain dominant. Our modern western dominant societies are left brain
dominant.
What to do?
First we need to recognize that our unhappiness comes from
our imbalanced state or split state and not coming from anyone else. Grief and
blame come from our lack of recognition that this difficulty comes from our own
outlook . Classical holistic Yoga practice gives you a little bit of reprieve
because it balances the two hemispheres of the brain and awakens the Self
Knowledge . Yoga practice by helping you to recognize your strength and
weakness, by regulating your energy , acts as a pain preventative measure and a self renewal tonic.
Start to practice balance trying to reinforce your weakness .
Hatha
is balance between Sun energy and Moon energy.
Right brain functioning /Left brain
functionning
Yin energy/Yang energy
Female energy/ Male energy
passive,
receptive/active controlling side of our personality
Para
sympathetic nervous system and Sympathetic nervous system
Relaxation
response and defensive Fight and flight response to stress
Decrease
heart rate/ increase heart rate
Imbalance of prana creates personality
problems and stress.
4. Prana needs to be channeled.
In the same manner with your choice to waste money or
investing money in order to give you
more money , You can gain more prana by using it wisely and you can also
deplete yourself from prana by being fearful to use it or by wrong
investment. Right use : Use prana for
meditation and Selfless service. The more you apply your energy correctly, the
more prana you will get.
Wrong use: You waste energy through selfish endeavors,
sensual pursuits and laziness. Gossips, blaming, back biting are waste of
energy.
Prana needs to be purified.
Prana moves through the subtle channels (nadis) in the subtle
energetic body.
Yoga science knows the art of purification of nadis to allow
higher energy to flow and induces higher wavelengths of thought and feeling.
Proper diet and
lifestyle purify nadis
To get prana and be able to retain it in the system, it is
important, not only to keep pure thought and a pure environment, but also make
sure to take proper food. Avoid substances like drugs, intoxicants which clog
the nadis and create damage to the pranic system.
Conclusion: Now is the time to Re-charge your battery.
When you spend time in retreat, limit your outgoing senses
and your worldly activities, do regular Yoga practices, you recharge your
battery. You can re-charge your prana
like re-charging a battery. Excess Prana is stored in the solar plexus of the
body.
What to do:
Join a Yoga class daily, if you can not go out,
join a class online. Practice of Yoga Asanas
unblocks harmful blocked energy and moves prana.
To do so, the sequence of the asanas needs to be respected and proper concentration, and relaxation in between postures be observed. www.yogafarm.org
2. Do daily Pranayama:
Pranayama is controlling prana through breathing exercises. There
are many types of pranayama or control of prana through breathing exercises. You
need to join a class with a teacher. It is better not to smoke and take drugs
if you intend to do pranayama.
The regular pranayamas to be done daily recommended by the Sivananda organization are: Kapalabhati and Anuloma Viloma.
3. Concentration gathers prana and changes wavelength
A distracted mind is weak and has low prana. Practice of concentration of mind helps gather the dispersed prana and brings health, vitality and peace of mind. A concentrated mind feels stronger and is more effective and gives satisfaction and contentment. Keep yourself busy on doing positive things.
4. Meditation is merging your personal prana and universal prana
Meditation is like a pranic tonic, it recharges powerfully the whole system. A meditator is shining with new prana. Join a satsang or a meditation course on line to know what to do.
5. Pranic Healing. Become a healer !
Yoga heals through holistic practice integrating Mind-Body-Spirit and
includes the 5 points of health (asanas,
breathing, relaxation, vegetarianism, positive thinking and meditation). It is
the most important system of preventative medicine.
Many modalities such as therapeutic massage,
acupressure, acupuncture, energy medicine are working on restoring the helpful
flow of energy. However, Yogis go to the cause of disease and impart prana with
their consciousness, thoughts and prayers. They connect to the Supreme Healer .
You can do it too, by recognizing
that the primary cause of disease, according to ancient yogic and
ayurvedic scriptures, is the forgetting
of our true nature as Spirit, thus bringing blockages of energy, mistakes in
lifestyle choices, indulgences in the senses and feelings of being lost .
When a person regains their sense
of purpose they feel stronger and the life force flows. When a person is
forgetting one’s Self and when the ego propensities become uncontrollable, the
disease process happens.
By remembering the Inner Healer, you will radiate helpful prana around and bringing comfort, joy, solace and peace to all. May you become great healers in this time and send your healing energy to the whole world.
“The laws of health are the laws of Nature” Sivananda “ Health is Wealth, Peace of Mind is Happiness, Yoga shows the way “ Swami Vishnudevananda.
In this talk, we will try to understand, in the context of the global epidemic, how fear and anxiety create havoc and take away your well-being and mental health, and how faith is so important in dispelling fear.
We will address the question step by step in 4 points
keeping in mind the need for prevention of disease due to poor immune system
impacted by negative emotions, and the need for healing emotionally in order to
heal physically.
First we need to understand all facets of FEAR, STRESS, and
ANXIETY.
What are the causes of fear?
Some Yogic methods for dealing with fear.
Cultivating faith to dispel fear and anxiety.
What
is Fear?
Fear is a very strong primitive emotion, present in animals, as it serves a very basic purpose: It helps us to survive. It is at the base of our stress response: fight, flight or freeze.
Things that appear unfamiliar to us, or situations beyond
our immediate comprehension, cause us fear. Fear creates imagination of darkness, of
falling and distorts the mind. Fear is
therefore based in unreality.
When we are fearful, we become paralyzed and lose our
faculties. We freeze, unable to do
anything to solve our problem.
Fear
is of two kinds, normal fear and imaginary fear.
According to Swami Sivananda, the percentage of normal
fear will only be five percent whereas imaginary fear will come to ninety-five percent. Normal fear is
healthy. It paves the way for one’s
progress; it preserves life. So in the
context of the possible virus infection, we wash our hands, clean our
handrails, stay put and avoid socializing, etc.
Imaginary fear causes diseases, as it depletes all energy
and produces uneasiness, discomfort and disharmony, etc. Examples of imaginary fear: You might be
afraid that you will get infected and there is no cure, you might be afraid
that your business will collapse and you will be destitute, that you will lose
your job as the companies downsize themselves, that your kids will not be able
to study, that your husband’s staying at home will lead to change of the
relationship dynamic causing frustration and divorce, etc.
Some behaviors due to fear and panic:
hoarding,
isolation, hatred of others, blameful attitude
shame and guilt
depression
constant tension, hyper vigilance
addictions, drink our sorrow away.
“ enjoy life while you still can”
“ I do not care! “
What is Stress?
Stress is the cause of many forms of diseases, especially
chronic stress. We have a built-in stress response in our nervous system in the
form of the fight or flight mechanism in response to situations of danger to
our survival. However, our stress response might not be adequate. Remember that Stress is subjective and can be
changed once an understanding of the causes of our stress is obtained.
5 CAUSES OF STRESS:
Low prana: Refer
to our previous talk about the relationship between low prana and negative
thoughts. We can alleviate our stress by
increasing the prana through Yoga practice and positive lifestyle.
Negative emotions:
Not only fear and anxiety, but also anger, which comes from expectations
and desires unfulfilled, can create stress. Grief is another negative emotion
creating stress.
Lack of
adaptability: If we develop flexibility
in mind and behavior, it helps to tackle the cause of our stress.
Existential anxiety:
The imminent danger of the virus epidemic might trigger our fundamental
anxiety of existence which can be calmed down only by a broader picture about
life and death and our sense of meaning.
Karma: We cannot
help but ask the question why, and we have to accept our collective karma at
this time. The pandemic situation is not
sparing any place on earth. We need to
ponder over our collective responsibilities.
In short, to build
stress resilience in this time we need to increase prana (next talk), spend
less prana, convert negative emotions into positive ones, be ready to adapt to
new situations, have more faith to deal with our existential anxiety and
understand our collective and individual karma.
What is Anxiety?
Disruption in life activity might create anxiety. Anxiety is even worse than fear, because
unlike fear, we cannot identify its source. Anxiety is fear that has no name. With anxiety, there is no creativity, no
productivity, we are depressed and our minds lose the capacity to think
clearly. Anxiety is an
emotion like fear is an emotion. It is
usually associated with autonomic hyperarousal and attentive hypervigilance, in
which the internal and external environments are monitored intensely for
information relevant to the sense of threat.
It is an expression of the life-preserving
fight or flight response and is an essential biological mechanism for
motivating the organism for action in response to danger. It prepares us to deal with varied and
challenging life situations. It is the
reaction to the perception of an external or internal danger. Under the spell of anxiety, you might find it
difficult to maintain normal day-to day activities and you keep feeling anxious
in anticipation of calamity or disaster, which might afflict you sometime in
the future. Parents and spouses need to
be aware that the children or spouses might be subject to tension, guilt, stress,
anxiety, nervousness and worry. They
might be replaying the separation anxiety suffered in childhood. In general, try to leave space, be available
but less demanding and perfectionistic, stay calm and empathetic instead of
responding with more tension and projected fear. It is a cause for concern if this feeling
affects your normal day-to-day activity. Try to establish a routine in daily life and
adapt to the situation. Routine,
schedule, normalcy as much as possible, daily discipline serve all to cope with
stress. Know that
what stresses you might not be what stresses your spouse or children. Know that anxiety is difficult to pin down. It may give rise to vague emotions of discomfort
coming from diverse persistent thoughts combined together. This feeling of discomfort creates an anxious
mood, but no one knows the underlying cause. Everyone is able to endure a certain threshold
level of anxiety, but please take note that this threshold is different for
each person.
The impending sudden rise of the epidemic
attack while your daily routine has changed, and the fabric of the society
surrounding you changes drastically, makes people suffer from impaired
concentration and with all the time now on their hands, people staying home
might find it difficult to perform even simple routine tasks.
Anxiety may be non-specific and arise
spontaneously with no apparent relationship to any obvious event. This type of
anxiety becomes all pervading in the everyday life of the one suffering, which
may result in both psychic and somatic symptoms. This non-specific and excessive anxiety is
pathological and needs to be helped with Yoga and relaxation techniques.
Look for symptoms of avoidance
behavior. Watch out for this avoidance
behavior. Also, become aware of the
practice of sending warm reassuring words, explaining to family and friends the
concept of “social distancing”, be sensitive to children perceiving this as
rejection, and keep engaging family in positive community activities while in
quarantine.
Symptoms
of Anxiety Disorder
Excessive anxiety or worry for long
period of time can turn into anxiety disorder, involving worry about possible
misfortune to one’s child (who is in no danger) and worry about finances (for
no good reason). In children and
adolescents, this may take the form of anxiety and worry about academic,
athletic and social performance. When
the person is anxious, there are many signs of motor tension, autonomic
hyper-activity (muscle aches or soreness, restlessness and easy tiredness, shortness of breath, palpitations, sweating,
dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, diarrhea, flushes or chills and frequent
urination). Other signs are symptoms of
vigilance or scanning including feeling on edge, exaggerated startle response,
difficulty concentrating or mind going blank because of anxiety, trouble falling
or staying asleep and irritability.
Symptoms
ofPanic Attacks
Symptoms last a few minutes. Unexpected, intense terror, shortness of
breath, dizziness or vertigo, shaky feeling, palpitations, sweating, abdominal
distress, numbness, chest pain discomfort and fear of going mad can be
triggered by situations of being outside of home alone, being in a crowd,
standing in line or travelling in a vehicle.
Symptoms
ofCompulsive Obsessive Disorder
Obsessions are persistent ideas,
thoughts, impulses or images that are experienced as intrusive, distressful and
senseless. Compulsions are repetitive,
purposeful and intentional behaviors that are performed in response to or to
relieve oneself from a tension. Example:
handwashing, counting, checking and
touching.
Causes
of Fear
From the perspective of classical Yoga philosophy, the
cause of fear is attachment, our grasping on to illusory things and
beliefs. Being attached means we are
stuck or bogged down. Fear is the
opposite of letting go.
The first cause of fear is the attachment to the body and
the ensuing fear of death.
The
Nature of Our Illusions creates Fears. There
are two classical analogies to help us understand the nature of our illusions. The first is called the “Snake and the
Rope”. A man is walking in the
darkness and sees a snake in the path. He
is frightened and immediately runs and gets his friend who has a lamp. When they shine the light on the snake it is
seen for what it is, a rope.
When we react to situations with fear, we operate out of
a limited consciousness. We have
forgotten that the sun is shining beyond the clouds. Yet
the clouds of fear obscure the light of the sun. We must have faith to seek out the sun when the mind experiences darkness. Whether we are dealing with specific fear or
general anxiety, we need to cultivate the courage
to face our illusions and be who we really are.
We need to have the courage to remove our wrong beliefs and
identifications, our thinking that we are a certain thing, when really all
those beliefs and identifications are simply attachments and not the one we
really are, the eternal strong presence within.
Mechanism
of Fear
Fear feeds on past
experiences that have no independent reality in the present. Through superimposition we are creating our
reality. We attach our meanings, ideas
and conditions to people, situations and objects. Our practice is to separate ourselves from
these illusions and realize the true nature of REALITY, of our own SELF. Fear and worry cause us to feel overwhelmed or
limited. As a result, we identify
ourselves as a victim. We have become
powerless to express our potential. Remember
the POWER OF NOW. In the Now we can
experience the POWER of BEING.
Often times we grow attached to ideas about ourselves,
other people and the world around us. We
get attached to things the way they were.
We need to introspect and think, because in so doing we
come back to the present, feel strong in the present, become creative in the
present. This means we are letting go of
our ideas how things should be, and we are ready for positive and creative
changes:
Change of the way we make a living (class on line, work at home)
Change the way we eat (simpler food, cooking our own)
Change the way we socialize (read books instead of using the internet, relax in nature).
Change the way we do spiritual practices (more mantras, more prayers, more meditation)
Classical Yogic methods to deal with fears
Depends on your temperament, you can apply the following 4 classical methods, separately or together. Try to see which one is fitting you more at the moment.
A. Karma Yoga methods (active practical temperament) : Think of how to be helpful for others in this situation. Avoid thinking only about yourself. This will open your heart and alleviate anxiety that comes from attachment.
B. Bhakti Yoga Methods (emotional temperament): Surrender to the Divine plan. Trust that all will be well. Learn to relax. Transform fear to faith. We will talk about this more at the end.
C. Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga methods (analytical temperament , people already having a practice of Hatha Yoga)
Improve breath-body-awareness with rhythmical breathing exercises and pranayama. Slow down, do restorative Yoga.
Increase and balance the flow of prana for greater energy and stress resilience. Balance the right- and left- brain activities. This is the key. Another class on prana is upcoming.
Improve mental and emotional balance by the regulation of breath, movements and concentration of mind. Awareness is important, not to force.
Increase ojas, the energy of sustenance, of immunity, that comes from your deep heart. Make sure to improve the quality food, not quantity (nervous eating). Also you can increase your mental attitude of trust and devotion. This subtle Ojas will increase your contentment, gratitude and relaxation.
Increase calm, reduce fear: Use props (blankets, pillows) when doing Yoga practice or when relaxing to create a sense of security, warmth, quiet and support so you and your family members or students will feel safe to let go of defences, to calm the senses and mind. Do only comfortable postures.
Experience physical, mental and emotional relaxation. Increase the right attitude for life – detachment.
Experience connection with one’s Self and others through deep relaxation, slow deep exhalation. Detachment from body, mind and emotions.
Teachers need to be gentle, encouraging and calming. The same as in trauma sensitive yoga guidelines.
D. Jnana Yoga methods (for intellectual philosophical temperament): Remember the True Self, the Atman, the Soul untouched by diseases and separation. Assert your Healthy Self. Do Self-enquiry, you are not the body nor the mind. Remove the veils of fear by exercising your thinking and discrimination and by detachment.
REPLACING
FEARS AND ANXIETIES WITH FAITH. WHAT IS FAITH ?
We need to cultivate faith, which will replace Knowledge
and help us to be calm in the face of calamity or diseases. We need to not only to rekindle our own faith,
but also help others to develop faith.
WHAT TO DO: We need to nurture the 3 types of faith:
1. Faith in OWN SELF (reconnect with ONE’S CORE
SELF): Self-reliance,
which may be the same as faith in one’s Self, means we must rely on our own
inner strength, dwelling within us as opposed to relying on an ego self. Fear
exists when we don’t know the Truth about the Self (the Atman). Until we have such knowledge of the Self from
our own direct experience, we must rely on faith, in order to progress in our
life. Ultimately faith is replaced by
direct experience of the Self. Truth or
Knowledge can be glimpsed intuitively, even if we do not have a name for
it. SO CALM DOWN AND TRUST YOURSELF. One student approached me very worried because
she had a cough and she just travelled back from England and wondered if she should
go to the hospital and be tested. I told
her: “Look within, ask yourself the
question, “Am I going to die soon? Am I healthy?“, to which she nodded.
I sent her to the hospital and the doctor said it is a
common flu and she should just rest. There is no COVID-19 test available anyway
unless she is ready to travel to another city. She did not go, but I believe that she
regained confidence and overcame her fears by being asked to find the answer
from within.
The Truth that will set us free from all fears, resides
inside of us, but it is a long, hard journey to find it. However, we must start to walk on that
journey with humility and sincerity. We
lack experience in the beginning, as we do not really have a clue where to look
when trying to look within. In that
journey faith keeps us going.
2. Faith in NATURE and the SUPREME INTELLIGENCE (i.e. cooperate with Natural Laws for healthy
living and improve immunity). Meditate,
shift consciousness from the past to the present. Try to see a bigger picture and channel the
emotions into devotion and the courage to face our illusions. Faith in God
springs from an inner feeling that there is something greater than you, a
supreme being that indwells one’s essential spirit. When one is enriched with abiding faith, one
is able to recognize God’s grace operating in all things. We are on a journey of self-discovery to
uncover the truth of whom it is that we are, a journey guided by faith. We can think of faith as the bridge that
carries us from one experience of grace to the next.
3. Faith in the teachings and the practices. The sacred teachings say that you are like the
Shining Sun untouched by fears and diseases. There are days when clouds fill the sky and we
can’t see the sun. But you know the Sun
is there. To regain vision of the Inner
sun, we must learn to clear away the impurities of the mind by theobservance of the Niyamas (1. ethical
guidelines of conduct to purify: Practice
of asanas, pranayama, for example) 2. contentment (turning mind inwards) 3. austerity (renunciation, discipline,
endurance, simple life) 4. self study (introspection) and 5. self-surrender.
Self-surrender means accepting what is; letting go and letting God’s will
prevail. Let it be. Bear the consequences of past actions coming in the present.
Have faith that eventually everything will pass. We must also practice
endurance and know that the journey is not going to happen overnight. The
challenge of enduring past karma is learning not to react or retaliate. Forgive
and forget.
GUIDANCE
ON WHAT NOT TO DO:
1) Avoid negative
company with those who believe in the wrong things. This is the surest way
to kill your faith and increase your fear. Therefore, avoid negative people.
This includes media as negative company, as well as internet gossip sites.
2) Following the Yamas: Practice patience with Self and
others. Do not beangry or violent. Do not lie. Do not
steal. Try to turn inward beyond the senses. Let go of our greedy tendency. Live
a simple life; the more one depends on
material objects the more fear one will have.
Everything is a test of faith: we have the choice to
spiral down or spiral up. We need to learn how to overcome doubts and fears,
how to renew our faith and not to lose faith, which makes us weak and move in
the wrong direction.
Often disease brings doubt
and guilt, feelings of rejection, of not having self-worth, or loss of
faith.What we must keep in mind is
that any kind of faith will make us feel strong, even when we have faith
in the wrong thing. So we might have faith in the doctor or in the medicine, in
the type of treatments we follow.
The
opposite of faith is doubt. Doubt will make us feel weak. Doubt comes when we lose
faith. We become doubtful in the underlying order of the Universe or of Nature. This is because our expectations are not
being met. When something happens that fails to meet our expectations, we lose
faith in God, the Universal law and ourselves. But remember, our journey
towards fearlessness implies renewing ourselves. Keep your mind and heart open.
When temporarily losing faith, try to find out the cause of our doubt,which is always a certain aspect of our
ego, and embrace again your truth in the form of faith. Company with those who
have no doubt is very powerful in removing doubts.
DO SOME RESEARCH ABOUT THE BEHAVIOUR OF
THE VIRUS AND GET OVER YOUR IMAGINED FEAR.
KNOWLEDGE WILL HELP YOU TO REGAIN CONFIDENCE AND FAITH IN THE INTELLIGENCE
OF THE BODY AND OF NATURE. THERE IS AN INNER HEALER DOCTOR WITHIN YOU. CONSULT
THAT DOCTOR.
MOTHER NATURE IS HEALING AND IS THE HEALER. SHE IS THE PROVIDER AND THE
SUSTAINER OF YOUR LIFE. DO NOT MISTRUST HER BECAUSE OF THE VIRUS WHICH IS ALSO
SENT BY HER. TAKE HEED OF HER ADVICE BY STARTING TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH
(PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL) AND TRUST HER TO TAKE CARE OF THE REST.
May you all be Healthy, Happy and Strong!
Om shanti, peace
Swami Sitaramananda, Acharya ISYVC Vedic Mantra for Healing & Protection
In these times we are hearing some unusual phrases and receiving some unusual advice, such as “social distancing!” “use pranams, namaste instead of hugs and embraces!”, “do not travel” “stay at home, work from home!”, “public health responsibility”.
If we are not going shopping, entertaining ourselves outside, not rushing about, what are we going to do? Can we live with ourselves? Can we really follow the Yogic lifestyle “simple living, high thinking” that we have talked about? How do we rethink our priorities? How can we go on appreciating life in face of this changing world around us?
How
do we face the Virus outbreak positively
and healthily, as yogis and yoginis, as healthy members of our society,
helping to maintain a healthy environment?
Here
are a few reminders from the Yogic teachings:
1. The connection between breath and prana.
The more we breathe, the more prana (life energy) we have. Prana is stored up and used when needed. We should not stop breathing practices out of fear of the virus. Kapalabhati cleanses your lungs. Choose places in nature to do your breathing exercises.
2. Besides breathing, you can increase your prana (life force) many ways. You can live a pranic-debt-free life, accumulate prana instead of spending.
The key is to turn to Mother Nature and reconnect with Her. Live in nature, get prana from:
the earth (walking on earth instead of driving, contemplating the mountains and trees, doing “forest bathing”, gardening),
water (bathing in the ocean and streams, natural ponds, drinking fresh water),
fire (being in sunshine a little daily, drinking warm water, eating warm food),
air (do abdominal breathing to get double intake of oxygen and expel tension and fatigue through long exhalation) and
ether (be in good space and good environment to support you. Pay attention to feeling of negativity in isolation as it leads to depression and addiction.)
Swamiji meditating by the Yuba River which is recharging pranic energy.
3. Prana is connected with the mind, the emotions and thoughts.
Positive thinking makes you feel strong and energetic. Cultivate joy, appreciation, gratitude. Convert fears, anxieties to courage, faith, self-confidence and contentment. Write down and share five points of gratitude each day for mental health. For example, ”I am grateful for my health”, “I am grateful today for the fresh air I can breathe”, “I am grateful for the good food I have today”, “I am grateful for friends and family”, “I am grateful for this life at this time”.
4. Concentration of mind brings strength of mind and boost the immune system.
Keep yourself busy at home if you are not working. Catch up on the household chores or organization or cleaning. An idle mind is a devil’s workshop. Pay attention to obsession on negative thoughts. This is not proper practice of concentration which needs to be on positive thoughts.
5. Concentrate on positive and uplifting thoughts
Concentrate on sacred mantras such as OM, or uplifting objects like flowers, trees, blue sky, the movement of the breath in and out of our lungs. Stay away from distractions. Distractions bring viruses to the mind. Keep your mind strong and elevated. This supports your immune system.
6. Remedial measures and healing by specific mantras
Consciously repeat the sacred mantra “Om namah sivaya” . Lord Siva can drink poison and deal with the virus. The more you repeat a mantra, the better it is, as mantras work cumulatively, by repetition. Also download and play at low volume in your house, even at night, the well known “maha mrityunjaya” mantra for protection, healing and liberation Om Tryambakam… This will give you a positive and reassuring background of thought. If you know of someone who is sick, address the prayer to the person in your mind and send them the healing powers of the mantras by your chanting of this mantra, either 3 times, 9 times, 27 times, 54 times or 108 times.
7. Conquer your fears by affirming your inner strength
“Om Sri Durgayai Namah” or “Om Dum Durgayai Namah”. You can use a strong form of the mantra of Goddess Durga who is our own inner strength dwelling within us. This will remove the effect of Rahu in our confusing times (which brings fear and delusion). This continuous mantra repetition for at least 108 times, also seeing the form of the Goddess riding the lion with her 8 arms will bring calm and courage.
Durga represents our own inner power and strength. She holds the weapons of all the Gods.
8. Remember “What you think is what you become”
Think of strength, you will become strong. Think of weakness, you will become weak. Think of disease, you will invite the disease. The reality you live in is the reality of your thoughts. You are the master of your destiny. If you cannot come up with positive thoughts yourself at this time, read books from the Masters. They will inspire you. Stop feeding yourself with social media news and stop feeding yourself with negative thoughts of others. Even if others are negative or anxious, remaining calm and strong will help them.
9. Remember the Vedantic teaching on Truth and Reality
Detach from your own feelings of worries and assert your true nature as powerful spirit, the disease-less Atman. Ultimately the world as we see it is unreal, because it is only what our mind is thinking and projecting out, a habit reinforced by countless repetition. You have had countless fears and traumas before and you will see now many reasons to be afraid again (you will a see snake when there is only an innocent rope because the idea of the snake and the fear of the snake is in your mind).
Wake up, bring the light of wisdom and see things as they are. Things are not so bad. The virus is not so terrible. Our own weakness and readiness to let go of our self-confidence and mastery is the problem. Do not waste energy in drama and worries. This is just a test how strong you are. Apply the yogic principles and be victorious!
10. Assert your healthy Self and know that you are the master of your body and mind. The internet world is not the only reality
The internet amplifies and distorts. There are a lot of “verbal delusions” and “likes and dislikes” surrounding you. These are the types of thoughts (vrittis) that will bring you pain. Fewer of these is better. If you want to keep yourself informed, browse the news from authoritative sources quickly and get back to your grounded self. Your body and mind are your instruments. Your health is in your hands. You are not a victim. Do what is necessary (Wash your hands, be prudent, limit desires and needs) and take care of your health with self-confidence.
Siva also has the name Neelakanta – the one who drinks the poison of the world and remains unaffected by it.
11. This is a great opportunity for us to rethink our priorities
This is an opportunity to focus and change our lives by adopting new and good habits. You do not need much to be happy. Happiness is within when you calm down the mind. Let go of attachment to things the way they were.
12. Change our stressful lives by the practice of contentment
This is a great opportunity for you to spend time with yourself. Do more Yoga, not less. Do more meditation. Turn the mind inwards. Yoga helps you to be with yourself and have clarity. “Social distancing” is a great concept promoted by Yogis long ago. In the yogic context, it means not to depend on outside relationships for your happiness. Not to be needy and searching outside for happiness or support. Less social life, more inner life. Less thoughts, more peace. “Yoga chitta vritti nirodhah”
Namaste to yourself and others and find your strength within your own true Self. Love yourself! You will then find others as your heart opens. You are never alone. You are the essence of all. Connect to your wisdom heart. This is a good time to do it. The Universe is giving you this precious opportunity to do this.
Conclusion
This is a blessing in disguise. Turn inwards. Less travel, less movement. More opportunity to practice. More clarity. Instead of seeing this as depressing, see it as an opportunity to turn within and go straight to our own goal of happiness. Indeed, it is a blessing in disguise.
Practice the above step by step. If you need more guidance, we are here to support you.
Like most websites, we use cookies for various features according to our policy. We hope that’s okay with you – if not, please feel free to disable cookies in your browser.AGREE
