Becoming a teacher

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.”

-Galileo Galilei

The path of being or becoming a teacher in the field of yoga, meditation, or the like is a rewarding and powerful journey of self-discovery. There may be a time, however, either when one is just starting off teaching or somewhere in the middle, when the desire to teach becomes obscured by various reasons or circumstances and the bright light of passion that was the motivation to complete the training in the first place begins to dwindle.

Does this sound like you? More importantly, despite this hindrance, do you still feel called to teach and share what you love? Perhaps there is an inner voice telling you not to give up. If so, be gentle on yourself and know that what you’re feeling is honest and very real. Think of this as a phase that is preparing you for the next stage of growth. The world needs your special brand of teaching during these turbulent times, but let’s first begin discovering the teacher within so that you may begin answering the call and ultimately fulfilling your life’s purpose.   

Get Back to Basics

Now is the time to make sure “all hands are on deck.” How is your spiritual practice? If this has been sidelined, it’s time to make it your priority. Practice what you preach. Your Sadhana will encourage a solid foundation from which to build your teaching practice. As your connection to self deepens, so does your ability to connect and share with others. You gain clarity surrounding your situation and create space for the teacher within to be reclaimed and emerge anew.

Ask the Soul Questions

As part of your Sadhana, try asking the soul questions prior to every meditation as a way of tuning in to the core of who you are and expanding your sense of purpose. Ask each question and let it go whether or not there is an answer. You are simply planting seeds that will help align you with your true self and you may find the answers come from unexpected places.

• Who am I?
• What do I want?
• What am I grateful for?
• What is my dharma or purpose in life?

Feed Your Curiosity

Before you became a teacher, your journey began with one little spark of curiosity. This curiosity led to further inquiry and soon you found yourself taking regular yoga classes and cultivating stillness through meditation and reaping the benefits. Just because you are now a teacher, doesn’t mean the curiosity ends. Keep learning, keep seeking out new experiences that spark your interests, and see where it takes you. Your repertoire of knowledge will expand, which means you will stand out as a teacher. Your boundaries might be pushed, which is exactly what you need to grow and the end result will be creative and more expansive approaches to teaching. 

Stay True to You

It’s easy to compare yourself to other teachers who seem to have an aptitude for teaching or are more seasoned and obviously have found their flow. While the saying “practice makes perfect” holds true, what helps initially is the awareness that the classes or the material you will teach have never been taught by you, thus making it new and fresh for your students. There will always be room for you and what you have to offer and how you deliver it despite how many yoga teachers there are in the world or meditation instructors may exist in your community. Stay true to you and the right students will find you and benefit from your special brand of teaching.

Lead by Example

Lastly, what is it that draws you to a teacher? Teachers who have an obvious “presence” are like magnets and generally exude humility, integrity, wisdom, light-heartedness, and strength among other qualities. People can learn so much by simply observing them. The idea is that you don’t have to be a teacher in the general sense, but you can also teach by example, which can be quite powerful. Start by becoming a maven, feeding your curiosity and diving deeper into the teachings, putting your teachings into practice, and becoming a beacon of light by simply being.

As a yoga or meditation teacher, you have the perfect opportunity to serve as a guide and lend a hand to those in need. Draw them up from the turbulent waters of life and help them experience more peace rather than constant struggle. By discovering the teacher within, you will soon find the best, most authentic way to teach what you love in a way that only you can. Most importantly, enjoy the journey!

what is meditation

The Chopra Center Meditation Weekend offers you a unique opportunity to step away from life’s demands and into the quiet and tranquil space of meditation at the world-renowned Omni La Costa Resort and Spa located in Carlsbad, California.

Meditation is a simple yet powerful tool that will take you to a state of profound relaxation, dissolve fatigue and accumulated stress, and renew your creativity and passion for life. By its very nature, meditation calms the mind, and when the mind is in a state of restful awareness, the body relaxes, too.

Numerous studies have shown that regular meditation practice can improve your mental and physical health including: 

• Lowered blood pressure and cholesterol levels
• Reduced levels of stress and anxiety
• Increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA
• Improved immune function
• Greater focus and attention

In addition to these significant health benefits, meditation brings a profound sense of calm and inner peace into your daily life. With meditation, you can dissolve fatigue and accumulated stress, and renew your creativity and passion for life.

Offered exclusively at the Chopra Center for Wellbeing in Carlsbad, California, the Chopra Center Meditation Weekend is a workshop led by Chopra Center master instructors trained by Drs. Deepak Chopra and David Simon. In the beautiful setting of the world-renowned Omni La Costa Resort & Spa, you will receive the tools and support needed to establish a fulfilling and life-long meditation practice.

Affirmation - Spiritual Work

I am now making an abundance money with my spiritual teaching(yoga, wisdom talks) in an easy and relaxed manor in a way that serves Millions of people and let my spiritual practices be a way of positive example.

Plan teach yoga everywhere
Launch PranaConnect
Paid public speaking

Asana - Sadhana

Sadhguru: If you try to stop what you don’t want, only that will happen. This has always been the nature of your mind and the human mind as such. The whole system of yoga is about experientially exploring the nature of your body and your mind. When you get up in the morning and do your asanas, it is not because it is a stretching exercise, as a whole lot of idiots across the planet describe it. Yes, you have to stretch to do it, but fundamentally, it is an exploration of your body and your mind. Because the biggest problem in your life is, you are trying to live here without having a grasp of the two basic vehicles without which you cannot go through this life – the physical body and the mind. 

How comfortably you travel through life depends on how deeply you have grasped your body and your mind. For the journey to be comfortable, the vehicle has to be good, and you must understand the vehicle – how it behaves, what it does, and why it does what it does. This is not enlightenment – this is necessary even if you only want to live an ignorant life. They used to say, “Ignorance is bliss” – if that was true, the world should be blissed out by now.

Even if you have chosen to be ignorant because you think it is blissful, to walk through this world, you must have a grasp of this body and this mind. Otherwise, doing anything is a problem. I will not go into this further intellectually, because then you would get all wound up. That is why the yogic system is an experiential exploration without trying to go into it intellectually.

Asanas – Exploring how the body and mind work

When you do your asanas, you explore the nature of your body and your mind. If you move your fingers in a certain way, your mind will function accordingly. Everything that you do with your body does something with your mind. You will not come to this understanding by reading a book. It will come to you only by exploration. If you close your eyes and try to forcefully remove something from your mind, you will never be successful.

This is the most basic and at the same time the most important realization that everyone needs to come to. Without this realization, you will make a complete mess out of yourself. If you are not so sharp in your head, it will be okay. But if you are sharp, you will cut yourself all over, and before anyone can save you, you will be mutilated. Every day, such mutilated human beings come to me and say, “Sadhguru, I’m interested in enlightenment.” First fix the wounds, or at least stop causing further wounds, because you have a very sharp knife. 

Even to shave themselves, a whole lot of men cut their faces. I have seen people bleeding in the face because they want to cut themselves close and it gets closer than planned. Understanding the fundamentals, grasping as to how your mind functions, does not come from an intellectual analysis – it is an exploration. What you need to do is, hold your body in one posture, and see your mind functions in a certain way. Hold your body in another posture, and see your mind functions in a different way.

When you do your asanas, you explore the nature of your body and your mind.

If you stay in an asana and breathe properly, as you go through this process, the mind will go into various states. This exploration is the most fundamental aspect of yoga. Hatha Yoga is not the peak – it is preparatory. If you try to go to the peak without that preparatory step, you will probably crash. At least 80% of humanity will not be able to do any kind of meditation in their life unless they do some kind of physical preparation. The very way they sit, the very way they move their body, it is clear that they cannot meditate, no matter how hard they try. Some amount of physical preparation is needed, because body and mind are not two separate things – or is your brain outside your body?

What happens to your little finger happens to the brain. What happens to the brain happens to the little finger. It works both ways. The brain is not a separate entity by itself. Doctors have learned about the body by dissecting dead bodies – if you open a dead body and cut out different organs and keep them in different places, it is all separate. But that is not how your body is – it is all one. Only to a discriminating scalpel it is separate, but for a living human being, it is all one. That is why the yogic system is designed the way it is.

As an experiment, try to resist the things that you want. You will see they will manifest strongly within you. If you want something to happen, try to not make it happen. It will definitely happen. That is because you are in a state where when you want to put your mind in first gear, it goes into reverse gear. This is not the best way to do things, but you could try this to understand that this is how it is right now – if you resist something, only that will happen.

Doing your sadhana – It works!

From tomorrow, get up at five o’ clock in the morning, have a cold shower, and start your sadhana at 5:30, every day. After some time, so many things which were a problem in your mind will be gone. Just do your hatha yoga for an hour a day – it works. But if you want to understand how it works, what the mechanism and the process are, it takes a lot of effort and time. To make it work does not take much. But if you want to know the whole intricacy of what makes it happen, why it happens the way it happens, why a particular asana has a particular effect, then it is lifetimes of study.

Party Weekend

So here I am after a very party oriented weekend!  It felt great in  a lot of way especially yesterday as I was in my guru gear but then i...

I wish that I can now start my married life with my amazing God given life Partner and cuddle upto him when i come home and spend our weekends together and share our life together of love and laughter and sharing and caring. NOW

July 14th Checking in

I have to say that i am a bit angry despite all of the beauty that lies in my life.  i really want to transform my life into something spectacular!

See yourself as a baby-- ok so when i see myself as a baby i have to say that little girl i know that my initial dreams about love are not what its turned out to be, the sparks and the prince who sweeps me off my feet well i have now met three princes and they have been amazing in there own way each better than the last but the reason the dream seems so different is that now of he pirnces have stayed as my husband or in a long term relationship they have all been for the short term a few sparks and puff...!  I NOW am in total BLISS with my husband by August 21, 2016.

The happily ever after was not very real for me so far but now it is, in a very different way.  the reality is that i have never visualized someone long-term for me. and now that has all changed.  I would love to be with my life partner, a partnership of equal with respect for each other and we would love to laugh, love, be joyful, kiss, hug, have sex, touch, enjoy, teach, be spiritual, be famous, travel, be silly, goofy, playful, healthy, live together, care, caress, support, nurture, adore, be each others best friends always, knowing that God brought us together, we are known  all over the World and share our love with the World!

Vision for Work-  I NOW have a great new PAID long-term job where I can teach Mindfulness and Yoga to the Work audience.

List of 5 to contact - HeadSpace, Cisco, Law Firms.  

Example of Yoga RETREAT

EXPERIENCE THE ANCIENT TEACHING I BRING YOU DIRECTLY FROM INDIA!

I invite you to a 10 day ANADI SUMMER YOGA RETREAT on the island of Brac!
A perfect way to rejuvenate and relax your body and soul!

Every day includes:
1.Morning yoga class – 7:30h - 9:30h (Sattva yoga: ~Asanas~Pranayama~Kriyas~Dance)
2.Free time( bike tour around the island, fishing in traditional way, visiting the nearby islands of Hvar and Mljet, hiking tours around the island, staying in an attractive village Bol on the other side of the island, water sports)
3.Evening yoga class – 19 :30h - 20:30h (Yoga nidra~Meditation~Self-healing technique.
4.Anadi Holistic Face Lifting Massage (Optional)

THE ACCOMODATION is located in a newly arranged villa with a modern looking apartment on the first floor.The apartment has two rooms and a bathroom, fully equipped kitchen and a balcony surrounded by a Mediterranean style yard. 
On the second floor there are three beautiful rooms, each with a separate bathroom, smaller balconies, fully equipped shared kitchen and a huge balcony with a view of the sea. The sea is a 5 minute walk distance away.

ABOUT SUTIVAN ( ON THE ISLAND OF BRAC)

SUTIVAN is a quiet, small place, formerly a fishing village, located on the northwest coast of Brač. It lies along the sea, surrounded by pebble beaches and a sandy cove. In the summer, Sutivan becomes a live stage for concerts, exhibitions, art nights and lively festivals. Everything you need for a pleasant stay is here: shops, the market place, post office, restaurants and coffee shops, tennis court. There is a bike and motorcycle rental, a diving school, boat tours to many of the surrounding islands. Sutivan is abundant in olive groves and vineyards, and is permeated with a captivating scent of pine forests.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM:

During this ten day program you will learn to:
- REJUVENATE your organism through ancient YOGA ASANA & PRANAYAMA practice
- RELIEVE yourself from STRESS and tension through KRIYAS (specific body movements through breathing) – perform movement PSYCHOTHERAPY
- REGENERATE your body and spirit through ACTIVE MEDITATIVE DANCE and free movement, accompanied by healing music
- MEDITATE and awaken your INTUITION and inner wisdom.

ABOUT OUR SPECIAL OFFER – ANADI HOLISTIC FACE LIFTING MASSAGE
You can experience the well being of this ancient face rejuvenation massage on a daily level, in the form of five massage package. (Massages are in the form of packages for achieving and maintaining maximum effects)

The charms of the sea combined with authentic Sattva yoga practice and holisticface-lifting massage, will connect you with the tiniest bits of your being.

Come and join us in the experience of something completely new in a unique ambience of this magical sea town!

THE ARRANGEMENT PRICE of the ten day yoga holiday includes two options:

1. 550 Eur per person, the accommodation and 2 classes of yoga included per day
2. 700 Eur per person, the accommodation, 2 classes of yoga per day and 5 face-lifting massages included

THE ARRANGEMENT PRICE DOES NOT INCLUDE:

- Transport, food, personal expenses, optional excursions

REMARK: When making a reservation, it is obligatory to pay 30% of the total program price in advance to be able to reserve your room. This amount is non-refundable in case of cancellation. The rest of the amount is to be paid ten days before the beginning of this program at the latest.


ABOUT THE ORGANIZER OF YOGA RETREAT

Monja Švec was born in 1986 in Novi Sad, Serbia.Several years of practicing and studying yoga took her to highly appraised teacher Dragan Loncar, ( Belgrade, Serbia), where she continues improving her Hatha yoga, meditation and Yoga Nidra in “Vidya yoga school“, following the teaching of Swami Saraswati Satyananda (Bihar, India). After that, her life path brings her to an ancient yoga town of Rishikesh (India), where she completes the Sattva yoga course lead by the eminent and highly appraised teacher Anand Mehrotra. There she gets introduced to the holistic practices of Kriyayoga, pranayama, asanas, free movement and meditation. In the meantime, Monja organizes workshops and yoga classes in Serbia and Europe, where trainees obtain the knowledge about the benefits of the eastern body and spirit practices. She was also trained in Delhi, India, at the Institute “Shri Kaya Kalp”, where she becomes a certified Ayurveda Beauty Therapist.
She teaches Sattva yoga at Sattva center in Rishikesh, India. She also practices intuitive and reiki healing.
She included the unique holistic face-lifting massage to her practice (ANADI HOLISTIC FACE MASSAGE) which spreads throughout the world due to its incredible results. This massage leaves deep, natural, healing effects on face and body skin (internally and externally), as well as on mind and spirit.
Most of the year she spends living, teaching and educating herself in India.

The MOST Beautiful thing in the World

I experienced the most beautiful thing in the World today, a connection that is so sweet I have never felt anything like it before. When people say meditate setting a time just does not seem to be good enough. ....wow the being inward the journey is so beautiful.  That is the only thing i want to do with my life, is experience this gift ....thank you God.

When i sat in-front of this master today, i felt a bit disappointed -- actually all day.  Offering me books is just not the way to go since its like give alcohol to a drunk guy.  Also, the thing is I have been to so many groups now and i just feel

This is the time i would be leaving if I went to India for the Yoga teacher training==>I feel neglected by my Guru who i think the world of...and it is my wish that i get to serve him in a way that is beautiful just to be with him and have him acknowledge me and my gratitude with words just doesn't seem like enough

With Sattva == talking to Daniel==>A is a really good teacher and he has served as a teacher of something totally different for me.  He taught me how to open my heart in a romantic way and all the notions i have with getting someone who i think is great.  and all this getting.  I was listening to Daniel and thinking i don't want to be in that situation again where i am showing up as a student and yet there are all these women around and

The reality is that nothing is controlled or even predictable.  we just have to go with the flow of life because the only thing beautiful is the connection with God.  so much garbage we put into our life...why bother.

I am experiencing something so beautiful that why not just stay with it....

I felt that God has set me on a path where there is so much loneliness i feel very alone sometime i wish that i have a partner in my life who is on this path with me, my path to God and is fun and attractive and beautiful from the inside and out, where we can share our beautify for God with the World

When we say Service, it seems like such a dream but the reality is that there is no service.  this feeling that is a gift and i wish to experience it fully...every bit of it.

Favorite Mantra's

Wednesday morning, do the mantra "om bum buddhaye namaha" 1008 times 

Read more at: https://www.astro-vani.com/blog/dos-and-donts-while-wearing-pannaemerald/
Follow us: @AstroVaniGuru on Twitter | Astro-Vani-803168006382763 on Facebook

Thursday Fast Mantra
The mantra is: Aum Hreem Kleem Hoom Brihaspataye Namah

July 4th fireworks

Well here i am ready to start a new chapter of my life with my husband, the reality is that i have never lived with or dated anyone long-term most of my life.  i have met some great guys along the way and wanted to marry i would say maybe three total of them by now.

But marriage is an entirely different thing all together, its been fun to seek the ideal guy and meet men etc.  But now i look for someone totally different, i want someone that i actually want to live with, i want my best friend and lots of benefits and my spiritual partner so we come together to help each other evolve spiritually, lots of fun, laughter, caring, loving, sex, caressing, touching holding and just lots of joy and happiness togetherness.  The togetherness that i am now embracing for the first time in my life and together we soar...

I am now with my Soul Partner, my Husband

• Oneness 
• Easy, joyful and fun
• Sharing, Caring, togetherness
• Knowing that as we lay in each others arms it just feels wonderful
• Happiness, Partnership, Dreaming together
• God's choice, pure love and togetherness
• Relaxing, lightheartedness, Delicious
• Openness, relaxing, nurturing 
• Adoration
• Sensual, Seductive, Warm
• Hot and Sexy
• Comfortable and Steady
• U N I O N == in Yoga Together  Always with Love

Aha moment---holding myself back

Just yesterday i was speaking with my friend about feeling like i dont have energy==>
Been going on for few days but over the last 3 years i have developed this practice of rewarding myself in the afternoon with an ice cream shake with coffee, this thing has really helped me get the energy i need to carry on the rest of my day! But it is not only caffeine but also has sugar and causes a lot of bloating in my stomach and swelling of my lymph nodes.

The reality is that i feel that i have given up a lot that doesn't serve me like ==> No alcohol, no meat, not much socializing most of the things that i used to enjoy before but dont do now...

But the problem is that i dont feel like i have fun anymore, i do love to laugh but i guess my fun was from food because i have not dated anyone in years!  so having ice cream is not only childlike, helps me connect with the little girl in me but also feels like enjoyment.

But as my friend pointed out, i do yoga and meditation because i love it and i have a very deep sense of devotion in me so now this has become about dishonoring my body because for me to be exhausted like this is not fare to my body and it just doesnt help anyone.

Why do i want to hold onto this so i can not feel good about myself??????
because i am bored and not happy with showing up in the world as not a complete being..i am ready to move forward...

Being with Parents

As i spend time with my parents I realize that both of them have had some real scares in terms of health==>  its hard for me to see this since i feel some of it can be avoided but the thing is at this age who knows.  But the frustrating thing after seeing my Mom's situation is that she has not changed anything around her but expects everything around her to change when something else happens.

I have lived my life this way all of my life as well, when something on the external changes, then i will change.  If that then this==>but the reality is that i have also livied this way and well have i made a lot of changes yes and now i feel that i am still ready to jump into living my life to the fullest.

So i see the adamance 

Update on Guys

Coming back from India this time -- I have more clarity than I ever imagined ==> i got answers to questions i never had and although i did not get what i thought i went for, i actually had so many powerful experiences that it was amazing!

I went to Neelkand and it was amazing Shiva's Darshan and connection to Parvati that I have never experienced was involved in me where she layed out the whole looking for someone all the time all the seeking is just not that good for me.  

I realize today that I have spend all my life with these guys who in having them it would make my life complete and they would help me fulfill my life purpose.  But the reality is that none of them have turned into a romantic relationship.

I have spend so much time away from this stuff that i'm not sure what to do next.  I met Punit when i let do of all and every notion i had about love and there he was he made me laugh and i like feeling that way with him.  Now is the same thing laughing, eating dinner, talking, smiling, why would i deprive myself of something so beautiful at all.  

A romantic relationship for me has to have the basics where i can pick up the phone and call him, make fun of him, tease him, lay in bed with him and truly feel content in knowing he is the one and smiling with gratitude.  it has to feel like an actual relationship, where we both feel like we are dating and going out together.  

travel to india

I have been so excited about traveling to India to see A that its the excitement that i had longed for and it all worked out but the thing is i wish i was going into a situation where he is looking forward to my arrival and welcomes me with open arms and wants to have a  real committed loving marriage with me.  i want to feel the deep connection and love I once felt and have longed for so long...

we have to live a little and not be so afraid of that which we don't control, in God we trust, Amen!

what is karma role for a seeker...

What is karma and its role in a seeker’s life?

Once you enter the spiritual path, you are making a statement, “I am in a hurry to get to my ultimate destination.” You don’t want to take one hundred lifetimes. And in the process of this one hundred lifetimes you may gather enough karma to last out for another thousand lifetimes. You want to hurry it up. So, once a spiritual process begins, if initiations are done in a certain way, it opens up dimensions which would not have opened up otherwise. You would have lived a more peaceful life if you were not spiritual, but a more lifeless life too, closer to death than life. Without anything fundamental being shaken within you, maybe you just passed comfortably.

So does this mean all negative things happen to you once you are on the spiritual path? That’s not how it is. It is just that when life moves at a tremendous pace – a pace much faster pace than that of people around you – you think some tragedy is happening to you. No tragedy is happening to you. It is just that they are going at normal speed but your life is rolling on fast-forward.

…if you are genuinely on the spiritual path, nothing will be clear. Everything will be a blur.

Many people have this wrong notion that once you enter a spiritual path, you will become peaceful and everything will be clear. If you take on a convenient belief system and become a single-track mind, then everything seems to be clear. But if you are genuinely on the spiritual path, nothing will be clear. Everything will be a blur. The faster you travel the more of a blur it becomes.

A few years ago, I happened to be in Germany and after we finished the program, I had to drive to France, which was about 440 km from where I was. Usually the journey takes five hours. I had no intention of staying on the road for five hours so I just pushed it and we were doing something like 200 kmph. The countryside was supposed to be beautiful in this region, and I thought I would look at it. I tried to roll my eyeballs but everything was a blur and I couldn’t take my eyes off the road for a moment. It was snowing and we were driving crazy speeds.

So, the faster you go, everything becomes a blur and you can’t take your eyes off what you are doing for a moment. If you want to enjoy the countryside, you must go easy and slow. If you are in a hurry to reach your destination, you gas it. You see nothing. You are just going. The spiritual path is like this. If you are really on the spiritual path, everything is in turmoil all around you. But you are still going, so it’s okay. Is this alright? If it’s not alright, you can go at the evolutionary pace. Maybe it will take a million years and you will get there.

For those who are in a hurry, there is one kind of path. For those who are not in a hurry, there is another kind of path. You must be clear what the hell you want. If you get onto the fast track and try to go slow, you will be run over. If you are on the slow path and try to go fast, you will get a ticket. Every seeker must always decide – does he want to just enjoy the road or does he want to get to the destination quick?

How to stop negative emotion-Sadhguru

From tomorrow, get up at five o’ clock in the morning, have a cold shower, and start your sadhana at 5:30, every day. After some time, so many things which were a problem in your mind will be gone. It works – that is all that matters. If you want to understand how it works, what the mechanism and the process are, it takes a lot of effort and time. To make it work does not take much. But if you want to know the whole intricacy of what makes it happen, why it happens the way it happens, why a particular asana has a particular effect, then it is lifetimes of study. 

Questioner: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. Whenever I try to stop any negative emotion like anger, it only becomes stronger. How can I get a grip on my mind?
Sadhguru: If you try to stop what you don’t want, only that will happen. This has always been the nature of your mind and human mind as such.
The whole system of yoga is about experientially exploring the nature of your body and your mind. When you get up in the morning and you do your asanas, it is not because it is a stretching exercise, as a whole lot of idiots across the planet describe it. Yes, you have to stretch to do it, but fundamentally, it is an exploration of your body and your mind. Because the biggest problem in your life is you are trying to live here without having a grasp of the two basic vehicles without which you cannot go through this life – your physical body and your mind.

How comfortably you travel through life depends on how deeply you have grasped your body and your mind. For the journey to be comfortable, the vehicle has to be good, and you must understand the vehicle – how it behaves, what it does, and why it does what it does. This is not enlightenment – this is necessary even if you only want to live an ignorant life. They used to say, “Ignorance is bliss” – if that was true, the world should be blissed out by now.
Even if you have chosen to be ignorant because you think it is blissful, to walk through this world, you must have a grasp of this body and this mind. Otherwise, doing anything is a problem. I will not go into this further intellectually, because then you would get all wound up. That is why the yogic system is an experiential exploration without trying to go into it intellectually.
When you do your asanas, you explore the nature of your body and your mind. If you move your fingers in a certain way, your mind will function

4 ISHA FOREST FLOWER December 2014

SADHGURU

The Breath - Sadhguru

The following is an excerpt from a darshan with Sadhguru at the Isha Yoga Center, Coimbatore, India, on 22 June 2014.
Questioner: Namaskaram, Sadhguru. What is the role of the breath in one’s spiritual growth?
Sadhguru: In yogic terminology, the breath is referred to as koorma nadi. The koorma nadi is that which ties you as a being to this physical manifestation of a body. As you know, the body is an accumulation of what we have eaten, or in other words, it is just a piece of the planet, but right now, you perceive it as “you” because body and being are so well tied together. And it is the koorma nadi, the thread of koorma, which does that. If I take away your breath, you and your body will fall apart.
The significance of the breath in a spiritual practice is that it gives you access to that point or that dimension where the physical and the non-physical are tied together – that is if you know the breath as koorma. Right now, you only know the sensations caused by the passage of air – that is not koorma. The koorma nadi is more than the air that you breathe – but without the air that you breathe, it will not

happen. The passage of the air is important, but koorma is not limited to that. It is the life breath of existence that you are inhaling and exhaling. If it is taken away, you and your body will not be capable of staying together. They will fall apart.
Travelling with your koorma nadi is an effort to know that space where the physical and the non- physical meet. That is the purpose of the Shambhavi Mahamudra – to be in the twilight zone where you are in the physical but touch a dimension beyond the physical. It would be very simple to leave the physical and go to the non-physical – a bullet in the head would do that, but that is not our aspiration. The aspiration of a human being is to be rooted in the physical but have a taste of that which is beyond.
The breath is one of the easiest tools to approach the non-physical dimension. There are other ways too, but they would need much more care, instruction, guidance, and assistance. With the process of breath, it happens much more easily. That is why the breath is significant in a spiritual context.