It's quite hard to face fact that 'you' are responsible for everything that happens to you. So wouldn't it make good sense to take some time now and again on a regular basis to ask yourself if 'you' are the authority in you're own life, and if you are not who is? Being honest with yourself at least is a beginning to the trans-form-ation of consciousness. Illusion, (maya), is by definition a lie, it is not real.

So asking what is 'not real' in you're life and what feels false if you do not even know who you are, or if the 'you' that is asking is the ultimate authority in you're life, is flawed. Some heavy questions indeed need to be asked if you are ever going to find out who you really are. These are some of the questions the existentialists asked themselves, intense and weighty questions. Carl Jung apparently said, 'we will not become enlightened by visualising images of light. We become enlightened by carrying the light into the darkness of our own minds'.

These questions are heavy but they are en-lightened by the bright-light that is you're practise of Asana, pranayama etc.

The eight limbs of 'Raja' yoga end at step eight which is 'Samadhi'. According to one definition this is the merging of 'subject' and 'object'. This goal may seem like a very long way off indeed. But if we never feel the inspiration of Samadhi, how can we ever attain it?

I believe that when we do our asana, pranayama and meditation we get a glimpse of this state. Resting in final relaxation at the end of a good class experiencing what it is like to have a quiet mind is surely a glimpse beyond the so-called normal realms of everyday awareness. It's like a carrot held before the donkey mind to make it keep going forward, or the lash that drives you onward to the top of the mountain.

I'm not sure what it is but sometimes I feel something special is happening to me when I practise. I'm going to go as far as to say that there is some divine intelligence that will get in if you open the door for it. It is this intelligence that is the real driving force behind the evolution of the DNA, the driver that makes the grass green. But like Brahman it cannot be described it can only be experienced.

The toolbox to this experience is Asana, Pranayama, Dharana, Dhyana,...........

It's not important to be serious but it is important to be serious about what's important. anon.