SF Trip

Why is it that I want any of this...

i met with Sabeer this afternoon and to think that i spend 7 years piening over this guy.  I didnt feel a think actually how quickly love comes and goes....in a way its good its opened up the possiblilty for new people. 

Choose Joy

Every individual is capable of building relationships of joy and happiness, if only we get the fundamentals right. Yogi and mystic,Sadhguru, looks at creating an inner “climate” from which healthy relationships can naturally blossom.

Sadhguru: Relationships are necessary to exist in the world. You may not get married or raise a family, but you still have relationships with anything and everything around you. Whether you keep them beautiful or ugly is the only choice you have. For most people, though relationships initially bring joy, after a while they only bring anxiety. This happens because we have been building relationships out of compulsiveness, not out of choice. Please see, it isn’t your enemies who are taking your life. It is the things you have always wanted and which you have created with lots of care that are taking your life every day. If your enemy wants to kill you, that’s understandable. But it is your loved ones who are taking your life. Somewhere, we haven’t gotten the fundamentals right.

If you had a choice between pleasantness and unpleasantness, between joy and misery, between beauty and ugliness, what would you choose? Definitely, you would choose joy and pleasantness. But why is unpleasantness happening? Why is misery happening? Simply because nothing of you is in your control; everything is happening accidentally. Your mind, emotion, energy and body are not happening the way you want them to happen. They are mostly decided by the external situations. If the outside situations are pleasant, you also become pleasant. If the outside situations are unpleasant, you also become unpleasant. Who you are is very deeply enslaved to the situations in which you exist. If someone tells you when you should get up, when you should lie down, what you should eat and what you should wear, you consider this slavery. But right now, someone else is deciding how you will be within yourself – whether you will be happy or unhappy. Isn’t this a most horrible form of slavery?

Building Relationships Consciously

So you have no relationships, you are just enslaved to things around you. A relationship is possible only when there is some sense of freedom within you as to who you are. Otherwise, this is just slavery and compulsiveness. Because of physical, emotional or psychological compulsiveness, you are building relationships of different types. When you exist here as a compulsive being, you cannot operate as a conscious being. Once there is no conscious way of existence, what you want will not happen. Whichever way situations push you, that is the way your life will happen. You become accidental. Once you exist here as an accident, you are a potential calamity.

Only if you are an individual by yourself, you can hold a relationship. Otherwise, because of compulsive needs, you hang on to someone. That’s not really a relationship. This is just clinging. You would actually cling to anything. Right now it happens to be human beings. If you are not okay by yourself, if you are using the other person to fill in the gap, it will be constant trouble. If you really want to have absolutely fantastic relationships no matter where you go, first, you need to establish yourself as a joyful human being.

Choosing Joy

Lao-tzu

Lao-tzu, who opened up the path of Tao, was one of the most beautiful human beings that ever walked this planet. At the age of eighty-four, when he was on his death bed, his disciples gathered around him and asked, “Master, we have seen you in all kinds of extreme situations but you have always been joyful. What is the secret?”

Lao Tzu said, “Oh, that! It is just that every day when I wake up in the morning, a thought comes to me, ‘Today, shall I be joyful or miserable?’ Until now, I just happened to choose joy, that’s all.”

That’s all it is. If you choose to be joyful this moment, you can be joyous. It is just that you have to make a choice every moment that you want to be joyous. Consciously, very firmly make a choice that you will live as a joyous human being. Don’t put it on mortgage – “But if this happens how can I be joyous? If that happens how can I be joyous?” “Whatever happens I will live as a joyous human being.” Make a choice like that. If you are fine by yourself, then wherever you go you will have wonderful relationships with people.

Editor’s Note: The next ‘In Conversation with the Mystic’ on August 4 2014, will see Sadhguru in a lively and insightful discussion on “Life and Love” with actress, f

My YOGI Lifestyle - July 20th

What is bringing this on?  I Know one thing right NOW - I am a Yogi from the Inside...
This is my chance to bring it to my outside appearance...I owe it to myself to radiate the beauty and fragrance that I feel...

A large part is Eating, Sleeping, Thoughts and Emotions...

Become an empty page

Sadhguru looks at what it takes to hold a relationship with the existence that goes beyond just the body, mind and emotion.

Sadhguru: Every creature here, however small or big, is continually in a relationship with the rest of creation and also with the source of creation. If there already is an inevitable relationship, what is there to do? Just change the quality of the relationship. You can sit here cursing this planet or you can sit here blessing this planet because it is giving you a piece of place to sit down upon. It is a big difference in the way you hold the relationship.

It is about changing the relationship. If the relationship is just physical, you will know certain things. If it is mental, you will know certain other things. If it is emotional, you will know different kinds of things. But you will still not know what it is. Do you see, from your birth to now, many things about your body have changed and are continuing to change. Similarly, many things about your mind and emotion are changing and continuing to change. Even if you have “frozen” it, still it is changing.

In a way, the whole spiritual process is just this – changing your relationship with the existence from being just of body, mind and emotion, to a subtler dimension of existence. All knowing comes just from this.

It is like this:

A scoundrel is knowledgeable
A fool will know
But a sage is an empty page

Because a sage is an empty page, just about anything can be grasped. If you already wrote something else upon it, it would be confusion.

All the big, elaborate and confusing talk about karma that is going on just means that you are not an empty page. Too much is written already so whatever else is written is going to be lost. It does not matter what is written on a page which is already full of stuff; whatever you write and however valuable what you write is, it is going to be messed. That is why in this country, people look at you and say, “Karma.”

All the spiritual sadhana is not to become knowledgeable, but just to become an empty page so that just anything can be projected. If you become an empty page and remain one, you can project life upon it. If you have been to the local theater, any number of movies have been played upon that screen, but it does not distort anything because light is a subtle thing. If they had used a crayon or a paint brush, those screens would have been discarded a long time ago.

So it is about moving your relationship with the existence from that which is physical, mental, and emotional – which will leave marks and never allow you to have an empty page – into an etheric state, where your relationship is far deeper and much more profound, but subtle in such a way that you can play any kind of cinema on it. The moment it is off, it is off; not a trace left. The previous movie, if it left even a little bit of trace upon the screen, the next movie would be a disaster. That is all that is happening right now. The previous movies have left impressions.

Are you ready for a joke? Shankaran Pillai went to the United States. He was sightseeing in Washington D.C. Particularly when you go on tour and when you go sightseeing, for many couples, that is when big arguments come because of all the suppressed aspirations the wife wants to express at that time. She wants to do this, she wants to see that, she wants to eat this, she wants to go here. Suddenly the husband is having problems with this new woman. This couple was walking on two sides of the street. As usual some long-haired people were protesting against the war in Iraq. Always there is some war and so, “Make love, not war” boards are everywhere in the city. Shankaran Pillai went and looked at it. He said, “Get married, you’ll have both.”

You just have to change your relationship with the existence and with the creator. How? You need to understand, this is not a relationship of choice. Whichever way, you have to hold a relationship; you cannot help it. Can you sit here not connected with any aspect of creation or creator? You may be unaware of it, but there is no way – unless you transcend everything that is physical absolutely. Otherwise, whichever way you sit, stand, or sleep, you are holding a relationship. You don’t have to try to hold a relationship. So fifty percent of the problem is solved. The other half is very simple – you do not make too much of yourself.

I am not giving a teaching, I am only giving a method. Do you know the distinction between the two? A teaching can be analyzed and understood. A method has to simply be used. It cannot be analyzed or understood. This is just a method. It does not take much effort. You just constantly see how small a creature you are in this existence.

Look at the mountain and see how small you are, look at the sky and see how small you are. Look at the distance into the sky and see how poor your vision is. Like this, put yourself into the right place. I am not saying depreciate yourself, I am saying be realistic as to who the hell you are in this Creation. You do not have to appreciate or depreciate; you do not have to lie to yourself. Simply see what is your place in the existence and constantly keep reminding yourself, “This is all I am, a speck of nothing in nothing.” Who the hell you are, what you think of yourself, your greatness – these do not mean anything. Even if you disappear tomorrow morning, the whole world will be fine. This is so for you, this is so for me, this is so for everyone. The more people do not understand this, the more idiotic their lives will be. The more they come to terms with it, the more intelligently they will live.

simply sit for long hours

Questioner: Sadhguru, I wish I could simply sit for long hours, but I am just not able to keep my body still. How can I overcome this limitation?

Sadhguru: To sit still, definitely your body needs to be conditioned –hata yoga is towards that. But even if your body is in a good condition, you still will not be able to sit still, unless you settle some other aspects.

There are eight limbs of yoga – yama and niyama, asana, pranayama,pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. They are not steps – they are limbs. If you had eight limbs, which one to move first is your choice, according to your need. Is there a rule which limb to move first? Since you are from India – do not think you must always put your right leg first. There are certain aspects of life where putting your right leg first is better, and there are other aspects where putting your left leg first is better. Which leg to move first depends on the activity. Similarly, which limb of yoga to use first depends on where you are.

If you want to sit still, just working on your body is not good enough – you have to work upon your mind too.

For a long time in the history of humanity, the body was the strongest aspect and the biggest hurdle. Therefore, people were put through hata yoga first. A few hundred years ago, only 5-10% of people had mental problems. Others only had physical problems. Even today, in the villages, most people only have physical problems, not mental problems. But generally, in the last few generations, people have had more mental problems than physical problems, because they use their mind more than they use their body. This is a big shift for humanity. Until 100 or 200 years ago, human beings used their body much more than their mind.

Since I am a contemporary mystic, I am looking at people who are here now. As their problems are more mental than physical, we generally start off with kriyas and meditation, which mainly work on the level of energies and mind, and only then go into hata yoga.

If you want to sit still, just working on your body is not good enough – you have to work upon your mind too. Particularly for this generation, focusing on settling the whole system – mind, emotions, body, and energy – is important. It is a wrong perception that people of today are more brilliant than people of the past. It is just that people’s minds are more out of control today because of haphazard use.

The way our education system is structured, it will invariably lead to disturbed minds. A child is going from reading poetry to mathematics – both are connected, but there is no one to make the connection. From mathematics, they go to music – both are connected, but there is no one to make the connection. From music, they go to chemistry – they are connected, but there is no one to make the connection, because the music department and the chemistry department do not get along.

Everything is taught in disjointed ways because after all, no one is studying with a passion to know. Everyone is studying to pass the examination and get a job. This is a very destructive way of educating yourself and a pathetic way to live. But no matter how senseless it is, the majority of people in the world have chosen to live like that.

Recently, I was at a very high profile evening event, where alcohol was being served in a corner. The host said, “Sadhguru is here, let’s not have alcohol served.” But some people could not keep their hands off it. There was a minister who came and said, “I’m sure Sadhguru is a man of the world – he won’t mind.” I said, “When did the whole world get drunk?” Today, it is made out like if you are a man of the world, you must drink, otherwise, you do not belong to this world.

We are culturing human minds in a completely wrong way. Then how can we expect them to be peaceful and blissful? It will not work. Unless you do the right things, right things will not happen to you.  If your body is not at ease simply sitting here, obviously, something is not okay with it, even if you are medically certified as normal. I was surprised to know that according to the medical textbooks in the United States, going to the toilet twice a week is considered normal. According to yogic culture, yogis should go to the toilet twice a day, because excreta should not remain in the system. What should go out must go out at the earliest possible time. First thing when you get up in the morning, it should be done. Twice a week means on an average, you keep it in your body for three days, and you expect your mind to be okay? It will not be okay because your colon and your mind are directly connected.

The colon is at the muladhara, which is the foundation of your energy system. Whatever happens at the muladhara, happens to the whole system, one way or the other – and particularly to your mind. Today’s scientists are arriving at such conclusions because they study the human being under a microscope – piece by piece. Therefore, about every bit, they come to a different conclusion. The whole cannot be perceived from outside – it can only be perceived from within.

Do your sadhana, change your diet to include more natural foods, and you will see in a couple of months’ time, you will sit still.

Breath Work

Tip # 21: Kapalabhati

This exercise, using rapid breathing, is believed to be such a powerful cleanser that the face literally "glows" with good health. Before beginning the exercise, relax by taking a few deep breaths. Perform 25 rapid "pumpings" in each round. Relax between rounds by breathing deeply. Try to do three rounds.

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Tip # 20: Alternate Nostril Breathing

When you are comfortable with single nostril breathing (tip #19), begin alternate nostril breathing, where you practice retaining the breath for a count of 16. The action of alternate nostril breathing is physical, but the greatest benefit is the calmness and lucidity of mind that results. Try to perform at least 10 rounds daily for best results.
The steps to be observed are:
1. Inhale through the left nostril to a count of four
2. Close nostrils and hold breath to a count of 16
3. Exhale through the right nostril to a count of eight
4. Inhale through the right nostril to a count of four
5. Close nostrils and hold breath to a count of 16
6. Exhale through the left nostril to a count of eight

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Tip # 19: Single Nostril Breathing

The object of practicing Yogic breath discipline, or "Pranayama", is to increase physical and mental health. You can practice the breathing exercises on their own or integrate them into your program of Yoga Asanas. Sit comfortably in a cross-legged position, with your spine and neck straight, but not tense.
Hold your head erect and gently close your eyes. Use the fingers of the right hand to close off each nostril in turn. Hold them in a position called "Vishnu Mudra". For "Vishnu Mudra", extend the thumb, ring finger, and little finger of your right hand and fold down your other two fingers into your palm. Rest the left hand on your left knee.
Breathe through the left nostril. Close right nostril with thumb, and inhale through left nostril to a count of four. Exhale to a count of eight. Repeat 10 times. Breathe through the right nostril. Close left nostril with the two end fingers, and inhale through right nostril to a count of four. Exhale to a count of eight. Repeat 10 times.

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Tip # 18: Full Yogic Breath

Place one hand on your lower ribcage and one on your abdomen. Breathe in, trying to fill the lowest part of your lungs, then the middle, and then the top. Feel your chest and abdomen expand.

Hata Yoga balancing the Sun and Moon energies in the Body

Yoga means many things to many people. One thing is, it is a sure way to avoid going to hell. Because even if they send you to hell, you will think you are in heaven after Hata Yoga. Nobody can ever torture you again.(Laughter) It is not a small freedom. Hata is a phenomenal science – it is a way of building a platform. When I say a platform – your body, mind and energy system are essentially a platform to experience life. The question is just about how profound your experience of life is.

Changing your chemistry by whatever means is not the most profound thing. If you change your chemistry either by yoga or bhoga, you will have pleasant experiences. Looking for pleasantness itself is not a very profound thing. To build a system which is capable of handling all dimensions of life as an experience – where no experience will break this system, no experience will mess up this energy – is what Hata means. Ha-ta means to bring a certain cohesiveness between the two major players who make this body – the sun and the moon. Every moment of our life, everything that we do is being controlled by these two forces. Forget about asanas, take something as simple as walking – the volume of physical laws involved in walking is too complex for anybody to understand. If you take away a drop of fluid from your ears, which is playing a crucial role in keeping your balance, suddenly you cannot stand. Your legs may be strong, but still they will be no good because to walk on a round planet – which is spinning and travelling at a tremendous speed – involves too many forces.

Whether pleasant or unpleasant things happen, Hata Yoga is to develop a system which will turn everything into your well-being. 

Hata Yoga is a way of getting beneath these forces so that you use these forces as a way to deepen your experience of life, or to make a larger slice of life available to yourself, because ultimately that is the longing of every human being. It doesn’t matter whether you are running after money, knowledge, wealth or love, essentially, everybody wants to have a larger slice of life. If you want to have it all, if you want to eat the whole pie, you must have a stomach to digest it. That is the most important thing. Classical Hata Yoga is to prepare your body and your mind, and above all, to strengthen your energy system in such a way that your energy body is so strong and stable that it can take any kind of experience. It is capable of handling all this that you call life.

Whether pleasant or unpleasant things happen, Hata Yoga is to develop a system which will turn everything into your well-being. Because what life throws at you, you cannot determine. What you make out of it, you candetermine. If this has to happen, you need an appropriate body, mind and energy system, otherwise the ways of life are such it can completely break and destroy you. You may think you are very nice and peaceful, but if somebody does one thing to you, you will crack up.

Another meaning for the word ‘Hata’ is adamant. You are adamant, you are not the kind to give up on anything. It doesn’t matter – there are people who will keep going only if you throw flowers in their path. If you throw filth, they will run away. But you are adamant; it doesn’t matter if life throws flowers or filth, you will go where you want to go. It doesn’t matter what the world does to you. If you want to become like that, Hata Yoga is a good method to get to that place. Hata Yoga is a powerful tool to determine and execute the course of your Destiny.

What is a Mantra

In today’s post, Sadhguru speaks about the science of mantras and how they can be used to benefit your system:

Sadhguru: Mantra means a sound. Today, modern science sees the whole existence as a vibration. Where there is a vibration, there is bound to be a sound. So that means, the whole existence is a kind of sound, or a complex amalgamation of sounds – the whole existence is an amalgamation of multiple mantras. Of these, a few mantras or a few sounds have been identified, which could be like keys. If you use them in a certain way, they become a key to open up a different dimension of life and experience within you.

There are different types of mantras. Every mantra activates a particular kind of energy in a different part of the body. Without that necessary awareness, just repeating the sound only brings dullness to the mind. Any repetition of the sound always makes your mind dull. Only when it is done with proper awareness, with exact understanding of what it is, a mantra could be a very powerful means. As a science it is a very powerful dimension, but the way it is being imparted without any necessary basis or without creating the necessary situations, it can cause lots of damage.

Every mantra activates a particular kind of energy in a different part of the body.

Mantras always come from a Sanskrit basis, and the basic aspects of Sanskrit language are so sound sensitive. But when different people speak, each one says it in their own way. If the Bengalis say a mantra, they will say it in their own way. If the Tamil people say it, they say it in another way. If the Americans say it, they will say it in a completely different way. Like this, different people who speak different languages, according to what language they have been used to, tend to distort the mantra, unless real training is imparted. Such training is too exhaustive and people do not have that kind of patience or dedication nowadays because it needs an enormous amount of time and involvement.

Mantras could be an extremely good preparatory step. Just one mantra can do such tremendous things to people. They can be an effective force in creating something but only if they come from that kind of a source where there is a complete understanding of all that is sound. When we say “all that is sound,” we are talking about the creation itself. If a mantra comes from that kind of source, with that level of understanding and when the transmission is pure, then mantras can be an effective force.

Karma Yoga

Sadhguru looks at the importance of the process of karma yoga, its role on the spiritual path, and how one can go about using action as a means to spiritual growth.

Question: What is the role of karma yoga in sadhana?

Sadhguru: It is not needed really. Yoga does not need karma. Yoga is to go beyond karma. Why karma yoga has been brought in is to bring about balance in a person. Whatever we call as our awareness, our love, our experience or our glimpses of our reality, if it has to be sustained, the path of non-doing is a very wonderful path, but it is very slippery. Extremely slippery. It is the easiest and the most difficult. It is not difficult but it is not at all easy, because it is simple – right now, here and now. But that here and now – how to get it? Whatever you do, it is not in your hands. It is never going to be in your hands. But your hands need something right now, you need to hold something. That is why the crutch of karma yoga.

Without the crutch, most people will not be able to walk. There are a few beings who can walk without the crutch from the first moment. They are very rare beings. Everyone else needs the crutch to manage your awareness. Without this, most people are incapable of remaining aware. So karma yoga is brought into your life to properly temper sadhana with the right kind of action.

Activity – liberating or entangling

Karma yoga has unfortunately been described as service, but it is not so.

Karma yoga has unfortunately been described as service, but it is not so. It is a way of undoing the impressions that you have gathered. If you can joyfully involve yourself in any activity, that is karma yoga. If you do it with great effort, only karma will come, no yoga will happen!

Generally it is through various activities that you perform that you get entangled and enmeshed with life. But if the activity becomes a process of liberation instead of entanglement, it is karma yoga. Whether it is work or walking on the street or talking to someone, the nature of the activity is not important. When you do something only because it is needed, where it does not mean anything to you but you are capable of involving yourself as if that is your life, it transforms you and action becomes liberating.

When we were building the Dhyanalinga, people thought, “This is it! He wants this to happen. Let us do it! Once this is done, we can relax.” They worked like their life depended on it. They went from house to house, raising funds and bringing the necessary support and made it happen. When it was done, before they said “Ooff…” I announced ten different projects. I will always keep it on because people need that kind of action. They need to do what is needed without worrying about their fulfillment and their likes and dislikes. Anyway we are doing something for our growth, so let us do something that is useful to everyone. Let us do sensible action.

Total involvement

To do something which does not mean anything to you but with total involvement is what breaks the karmic structure

There have been many masters who created action like this. WhenGurdjieff started his centers in Europe, the European elite went to him. In the morning he would give them a shovel and a pickaxe and tell them, “Dig trenches.” In the hot sun, they stood and dug and dug. These were not people who are used to labor of any kind. By the time they had worked a few hours, they had blisters all over. He stood there and drove them on. By late evening, they were hungry but they worked and worked, digging trenches. Then he would look at the watch, “Okay, it is seven o‘clock. Looks like dinner time. All of you can close the trenches again before we go for dinner.” A whole day’s work!

To do something which does not mean anything to you but with total involvement is what breaks the karmic structure. Karma means action. If action has to become yoga, action should be liberating. If your activity has become a process of binding yourself, it is karma. So the question is not about how much activity you do. How you are performing the activity is what makes the difference. If you are crawling through your work, that is karma. If you are dancing through your work, that is karma yoga.