The mind

The mind.

What is this thing euphemistically referred to as ‘the mind’? We also often hear the word ‘ego’ to denote some strange apparatus that must be sorted out, or even destroyed so we can become enlightened or something, what is an ego, what is enlightenment?

“Citta” is the mind in yogic terms, and the mind according to the yogic way of thinking is made up from three distinct parts.
Manas. Buddhi. Ahamkara.

Manas is generally referred to as the lower mind and desire. For example, we smell some cooking, and that part of the mind starts to interpret the smell into thoughts of hunger etc, especially if the smell is something that is pleasant to us. Manas is almost like a sense organ.

Buddhi Is said to be the higher mind or intellect. This is the closest to the higher realms of consciousness we may access through our ongoing and continuing practise of Asana, Pranayama, and Pratyahara etc. It becomes more apparent with ongoing practise how we seem to shift from a negative to a more positive mental stance after we do some pranayama and/or asana etc.

Ahamkara is the ‘I’, or ‘ego’. This is the part of the mind that identifies itself with labels. I am hot or cold etc.

Personally I know I can have a tendency for what some people may call negative thinking and I can also be positive on the rare occasion. Either way they are opposites of the same condition, or egotistical dualistic thinking.

In our modern western culture we place the emphasis on being positive, think positively we are told. But if we care to take the time to see, we may realise that we can see the same thing in two different ways. One minute a situation looks bad and the next it looks not so bad and the next it may even look good.

As we get older we may learn to use our nervous system in habitual and mechanical ways so that ‘we’ always get what ‘we’ have trained ourselves to want. We have preferences and habits and we identify ourselves with these things as an ego and/or personality. The more we identify with the ‘I’ the more attached to these things we become until, as in the case of addictions such as smoking we cannot live without them.

We are led to believe, by the advocates of yoga that we can change ourselves and become enlightened if we do the practise correctly. We are then shown how to do this in a more or less step-by-step fashion a la the eight limbs of Raja Yoga.

The one theme throughout the whole of the yoga system and many various translations of it is the idea that the mind and the breath are intimately connected with one another.

Chitta, (Mind), Vritti, (Various forms), Nirodah. (Restraint) is the second Yoga Sutra of Patanjali. It is said that if one understands the concept of this one ‘sutra’ one need not do any of the others.
How many of us convinced ourselves that we knew what he meant in order not to have to do the others, and indeed what does it mean?


It means; Yoga- is the restraint of mental modifications.


And there you have it!

So you now have a brief description of what the mind is and a brief description of what yoga is. Now all you must do is do it!

“Old Hari Krishna, got nothin on you. Just keeps you crazy with nothing to do. I, I found out. From a John Lennon song called ‘I found out’. Hmmmmmm.

Enough philosophy

Enough of this talking, what are we going to do about it ? What am I going to do about it? What are you going to do about it? About what? What are we going to do about what? What is it that we need to do anything about? Doing something about it means that there must be something to do, about something.

You're life is yours, how can anyone else know more about you than you? You're mind belongs to you, how can anyone tell you that they know what is best for you? Why is it that you dont know what is best for you? Who are you not to know what do do about a situation that is yours to deal with? Where are you? What has happened to you? Where did you go?

To be honest this blog started as a call to action. I read some of my previous blogs and thought enough of this philosophical rambling, what about the solution to all of these so-called issues and problems we/I seem to have?

Essentially it comes down to the momentary awareness of who we are right now. Who are we being right now? What thoughts are we having right now to make us feel we need to do something about anything?

For example if I wake up one morning and decide that my bedroom walls need painting, I may end up painting my bedroom walls. The reasons for deciding that my bedroom walls needed painting are numerous, dirty, old and peeling, bored with the colour, an experiment with doing some physical work for a change, any of these reasons can be used. So do I paint or not paint? I must at some point decide to put the idea into action, or not as the case may be.

You can apply the above scenario to any decision that you may have to make regarding anything. Peeling walls may not bother some people and so the walls continue peeling until someone else does the job. There are so many factors involved in this process.

So now back to the point of this 'action' blog. We are doing yoga are we not? Why are we doing it? Do we use it enough? What do we get from it? Why aren't we doing more, or less, if we're doing too much. How do we decide? Perhaps this blog should have been titled. 'How do I decide that I need to take some action?' Haha!

More about you/us/we/Me

It is all very simple really. All that has happened to you in this life has shaped you into the person you now are. Past lives too, if you believe that to be true, have shaped you. You are whom you are now because of all that has happened to you. You are also the ‘victim’ of hereditary traits through the gene pool of you’re lovely ancestors.

What lies behind this person that you have inherited and become? It’s almost as if there is an original blueprint of you, like a template, that has had this person you now are, shaped into it.

We live our lives doing the best we can to find a way to live and too survive what life throws at us. We adapt in different ways to the life we have been given, and at a certain point in our life, we may find that the life we have been given was actually one that we hadn’t really had much conscious choice in.

“You may find yourself living in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife. And you may ask yourself, my God how did I get here?” Talking Heads: Once in a lifetime. (Google it)

So one day you may ask. “My God how did I get here? What has happened? What have I been doing? People usually find themselves asking questions like this when they have some kind of, what the medical people term ‘Nervous Breakdown’. Now don’t be too shocked by this, but this is exactly the place that yoga can take you, and beyond, if you have the tenacity and the commitment for it. (This is only my opinion by the way)

What has usually happened in the case of a so-called nervous breakdown is that a person has moved so far away from any authentic life, that they have become disconnected from themselves on an emotionally healthy feeling level. For some people unfortunately the doctor is the best place to go at this stage of the game.

“People create neurotic suffering to avoid authentic suffering” Freud.

We may suddenly find that we do not know who we really are. We may ask did we ever know who we really were? Life kind of goes like this for most of us; In order to get approval at school, work or even at home we sometimes had to behave or act in a particular way. This is what most people do to get their needs met, to get what they want. It’s only when we forget we are acting that we literally lose ourselves. We then become 'ungrounded', or lose touch with feelings, and seek help somewhere outside of ourselves, and as mentioned in previous blogs there are plenty of people willing to help. For the right price you can get all the help you need.

The human body will always seek ways to survive; it is inherent in its structure to survive. A crisis is the body/minds way of trying to restore some health and equilibrium. The body will respond to fear whether real or imagined. The body has a mind of it's own, which is nothing to do with the ego's pressurising games. Give it some love by doing some Asana and Pranayama, relax. . . . . . . .

It’s amazing to me that we are not educated into the function of the human body at school. Anatomy and physiology isn’t such complicated subject and a darn sight more useful than algebra. But no, it is left to the experts to sort us out when it all goes wrong. Tragically most people know more about their car than about their own body. Most people too, in my humble opinion are quite ready to spend £1000 or more to get the car fixed but when it comes to £100 or so to get some health check, no way.

Well blah de blah de blah, who cares anyway?

Well me neither actually, not anymore at least. I have spent vast amounts of money on ‘finding myself’. I have suffered untold miseries in order to find ‘the truth’. So when people show a little resistance to the process of waking up, I’m usually very empathetic with them. But when people keep making endless excuses as to why they can’t do a class or a workshop and continue to whine and complain even when you’ve spent half an hour at the end of a class telling them what you think might help them, I lose interest, and the reason for that is; I don’t think everybody is cut out for the yogic path. So if you think that is you then it probably is. Lets just leave it at that.

This is a theoretical ramble on the nature of reality, or not. It is really not meant to be taken too seriously, so if you are a scholarly type look away now. This theory is based on the general principle of: How can we actually ‘know’ anything at all for sure? That is, I repeat, how can we really’ know’ anything for sure, for sure?

Lets face it we all like to ‘think’ we know something for sure. But what is it that we really know for sure? Like for example, we all think we know for sure that all of us will someday die. But we don’t really know what that means do we? To die! What does it mean? All we know is that people seem to disappear out of their bodies in a particular way and the essence of them, as they were before that point, has now gone.

That’s just one example of not really ‘knowing’ anything at all, at all. What else do we think we know? That we live! We think we live, so we just live. “I think therefore I am”. Becomes, ‘I think therefore I know nothing at all!’ Because the way I see it, if you’re walking around thinking all the time your not really living are you, you are in a kind hypnotic trance.

Imagine if there were a way to measure consciousness or awareness, maybe there already is, then there would be a vast difference between someone who was swallowed up by his/her thinking processes and someone who was fully present and correct in terms of clear consciousness, whatever that is!

It seems to be the case that whatever we believe to be true is true within the constructs of the mind. So if I think I am an idiot then I will probably be an idiot, or more to the point, if I think I am an idiot, I will probably ‘act’ like an idiot without necessarily being one.
I’m not sure if this treatise will stand up for itself in a court of scientific law. But I think some of you will get my drift, after all I did tell you this wasn’t to be taken too seriously.

If you are not laughing by now you can leave and I wont be offended. I think what I am really trying to say is that belief isn’t reality and if you already know that ‘experientially’ then you may be bored and you have my permission to stop reading.

To try to convey the point more clearly to those of you that are still here I’ll use another idea. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that when we are born we are clear and innocent and that when we are born we have a brand new brain and nervous system.

We can compare the modern computer to the brain and nervous system as a functioning piece of hardware. The brain is, along with the nervous system, like the computer’s hardware, the hardware of the human ‘being’.

We get a new computer and we start to add the software of our choice so that the computer will perform the tasks we want it too. However when we are born we have no choice whatsoever of the software, or belief systems that will be programmed into our lovely new brain. We are victims more or less of the environment we are innocently born into. That could be called ‘karma*’.

Our brain will be programmed to see things the way they are taught to see things, and through our parents/carers input, our education, our religious or the lack of it’s input, our gender and even national identity we become someone with beliefs, ideas and habits that are literally programmed into us.

So belief is not reality. But of course we have to have something to hang our hat onto so we say things like.’ As a man thinketh in his heart, so too he shall be’, or words to that effect. And this is true in and of itself but it is not, in my opinion reality. As ‘the map’ is not the territory so too the ‘beliefs’ we hold are not reality either.

So what is reality then?

Crisis according to the Oxford dictionary means (a) a decisive moment. (b) A time of great danger or difficulty. (c) A turning point, esp. of a disease.

I would like to take the position that we are born with a clean sheet. I would like to suggest for the sake of simplicity that our brain is clear when we are born. The brain in modern parlance is the hardware of our being human. The hardware functions according to the software input. Our lives are a continuation of a series of events that influence the functioning of the hardware. Education, parenting, nationality, religious and political influences, and peer pressure to mention some of the most obvious things will influence our functioning, i.e. the software influences the hardware.

From this perspective we are as humans beings to a certain extent conditioned to behave in certain ways peculiar to our personal history and the way it has impacted on our lives. In yoga terminology we could call this ‘Maya’, which interpreted means ‘Illusion’. As we grow older the influences from our personal past affects our decision-making processes, again in yogic terms these are known as Samskara’s.

We may go through our lives and never realise that we live in a conditioned reality, or we may find that something continually bothers us and disrupts our lives. This something could be called ‘Reality’, a real reality that is sitting at the back of our delusional/conditioned ‘Maya’ experience of life. Another modern analogy could be from the film the Matrix, whereby the mass of culture is asleep and being controlled via giant robots. We take the red pill to wake up, e.g., become disturbed by our personal history. Or take the blue pill, e.g, stay asleep and medicate our selves against these disturbances.

Ok, so to recap we are more or less asleep. At the back of this sleeping is a deeper real reality that in some of us is trying to make itself known. Sometimes when life is at its most difficult we may ask the immortal question, ‘what is it all about?” It is at times like this that we may catch a glimpse of this more real reality. As in the Matrix this other reality feels more dirty and tough, there are no luxurious trappings to keep us comfortable so of course we resist. Freud apparently said that people avoid authentic suffering by creating neurotic suffering. One of the characters in the matrix for example betrays his fellows so that he can go back to the world of illusion. He actually says that he knows it’s all an illusion but the steak that he is eating tastes very real and very good.

So authentic suffering is not to everybody’s taste or indeed anybody’s taste. But we keep being bothered by this other reality trying in its own way to break through. Sometimes it will break though and break down our delusion in the form of illness or an accident or the death of a loved one. We then ask the question, ‘what is it all about?’ or something quite like it?

I am now going to borrow an idea that I read about from a book that I love called ‘Holy Madness’ author Georg Fuernstein. In the appendix of this book he talks of something called ‘Prigogines Dissipative Structures’.

The essence of this idea is that somehow nature is always seeking more efficient ways to function. In a sense then there is an inherent force in nature that keeps re modelling itself into a higher more evolved form. The natural overall system of nature is supported by sub systems. These sub systems support the overall structure, until under the influence of some de stabilising force these sub systems collapse undermining the overall function of the bigger system.
If we apply this model to ourselves as humans with underlying complexes (sub systems or sub personalities) supporting our external manifestation as an overall functioning human personality, we may start to see that de stabilising experiences, i.e. crises can undermine these sub systems and lead us to either breakdown or breakthrough. This is a realistic view based on the fact that most people at some time may question their roles as people etc, and may even seek some form of advise or therapy relating to it.

A practise such as yoga in the authentic sense is a spiritual discipline. In the discipline we make a commitment to see beyond the mundane fabric of a nine to five existence. This commitment necessitates quite a bit if suffering if we are honest with ourselves.

For example we make a commitment to go to 4 classes a week for a three-month period. We make this decision with enthusiasm and off we go! As the time passes we start to feel a little tired and our back may start to ache, it’s cold outside and we don’t feel like it etc, etc. It is under such stresses that our underlying structures or sub systems start to become unstable. We may start to backtrack on our commitment a new voice, (a sub personality) starts to make inroads into our once enthusiastic stance. We think of reasons, very good reasons, why our original decision was a mistake! We may give up on our commitment telling ourselves quite literally that we didn’t really need to do it in the first place. We take the blue pill or we take the red pill. I reckon the decision is Karmically induced. In other words we either is or we ain’t.

It matters not one iota if you're downward dog is the most perfect in all the world. If you dont have peace in you're head and your heart what is the point? I know that for many years I was looking and trying all sorts of things in order to find something. I didn't realise what I was looking for. Now I know, I was really looking for peace and contentment. It was right under my nose all the time, the breath.

I see people running around to this or that new class with all the gimmicks to keep them coming back. This is what I see and nothing is changing, people are just forming new addictions, new things to fix themselves with. Like I said this is how I see it and I have earned the right to say this. Just sit still and breathe, feel what it's like to be you, right now.

It is all designed to make us feel better isn't it and until we can get to a place inside ourselves when all of the yoga teachers are unemployed we are still 'needing' someone or something else to make 'us' feel better about ourselves. Why do we need that? What is it we dont have? What is it this other person has that we think we need?

The old saying goes: 'The truth is hard to bear'. What is that truth that is so hard to bear? My suffering, the ache in my back or my heart, this is the real truth, of now. Here and now is all there is and all there ever is. How do you feel about that?

I guess this is an extreme view but real just the same. It is my view and I am entitled to it on my web site. I know we all need help sometimes. If you have a problem with you're electricity call an electrician, or a plumber for the waterworks etc. But like I said above when it comes to matters of the mind and body you need to see what you're real problem is.

"For those that know, no explanation is necessary. For those that dont know, no explanation is possible." Unknown.

So what are you doing ?????

Levels

If you see mundane reality,i.e, the place where you spend most of your time as a level of consciousness and you call it 0 (zero). Then anything above zero would be 1 (one) 2, 3, 4 etc. If it's possible to go up above zero it is also possible to go down below zero to -1, -2,-3, etc.

Instead of just saying we feel great or positive or horrible or negative, using such a model as above will give us a little more perspective on where we are at from a perceptual/emotional context. This is useful too in terms of what we may or may not be able to do with the fluctuations in our levels as they change literally from day to day moment to moment. Basically it gives us perspective.

Perspective is very useful when one starts to work on what could be called the inner levels of consciousness. I like the analogy of a pot-holer (someone that does pot holing!). Going down a pot hole into the unknown realms of the depths of the Earth, the pot holer leaves a line behind him so that he can find his way out again. So gaining more perspective of the inner levels of feeling etc helps us see more clearly where we are in terms of energy, and to act accordingly if the situation permits, eg, lying down to rest if we are tired. It's true that some people are so tired they dont even know it anymore because they are so externally fixated.

So just to re-cap. I am saying (a la John Lilly), that different levels of consciousness exist in a very real way. For example the simple idea of a good day as opposed to a bad day is all in the perspective/chemistry of the person experiencing it! We have levels moving up, more positive, and we have levels moving down, more negative.

"It is the perceptual framework that is paramount in the outcome of our creative endeavours." Jack Murphy.

How can we influence our perceptual framework? By changing the body's chemistry. How do we change the body's chemistry? Oxygen is in the periodic table described as 02. Oxygen has the ability to change the chemistry of you're blood. If you change the chemistry of you're blood you will change the chemistry of you're brain. If you change the chemistry of you're brain you alter perception. Bang!

Of course as we all know it is much easier to alter perception with drugs, alcohol, nicotine, sugar etc. One of the many problems associated with taking all of these things, not least of which is cellular damage, is the fact that once the chemical wears off the body will return not only to where it was before, in terms of perception, but even lower than that because of the toxicity of the drug/chemical used.

Well we all know this don't we? And we all know where this is going dont we? Well indeed 'IF YOU DO PRANAYAMA EVERYDAY- 3 x PER DAY- YOU WILL KEEP YOUR ENERGY VERY GOOD'

But as we know there are no guarantees in this life for anything. But it wont hurt to try will it ?

More tomorrow............ Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

(This is a yoga website for people interested in yoga. You can contact me personally if you have any problem with anything I have said anywhere on this website. My contact details can be found in contacts, where else?)

It's hard work this yoga stuff, in fact life is hard work if you're living in an 'authentic' way. So all this stuff about there being too much stress etc, is rubbish. There has always been too much stress! If you think about it there must have been quite allot of stress involved in evolving through millions of years of time, from the primordial slime up till now. I personally feel that there is a kind of subliminal message being put out through the media or some other way that kind of informs us that life 'should' be much easier than it actually is. If we buy into this bullshit and we dont feel so great about ourselves, we may then think there is something wrong with us. So unless we can be a little more objective about things we may get swallowed up in the mind over-reacting all the time, because life is unfair or some other such rubbish. Life is just being what it is. It's us that have or 'should' have the upper hand surely, at least over our own mind!

Acceptance of your lot is part of the key to the transforming process. Dropping into your feelings and allowing them to inform you, whilst breathing, is a process of profound transformation. Either that or denying feelings and superimposing the 'egoic' will onto how things 'should' be, and of course how things should be, will be conditioned by your conditioning........ ahem !!

I think people have a problem with doing what they think is right. There are so many things that will stand in the way of doing what you think is right. Doing what you really want to do, what you would really love to do, is even harder. We are all born with natural skills and talents, these may tend to get thwarted as we try to grow into the particular society or culture we are born into. (Karma)

As you may or may not be realising by now, it's a rather simple path, you just have to do it everyday, even twice a day. 'Oh that a bit obsessive isn't it?' Yup it may well just be a bit obsessive for a while. So what!

Just to remind you this is a YOGA WEBSITE for people that do yoga. If you dont know what yoga is Google it. See what comes up.

I just need to clarify something for myself and you, and that is that I am someone that has had to work hard to stay what you may want to call 'grounded' or a much better word 'sane' in this crazy world. Yoga works for me and I hope it works for you if you choose to do it.

Dont be put off yoga by some of the yoga teachers who think they have gone beyond the need to be an ordinary person. . . . . . . . . .

"There is no such thing as a grown up". Spoken by a priest who had been taking confessions for 50 years. (I read that in a book somewhere).

"What is that knowledge of Brahman or the source of the self? Close your eyes, withdraw the senses (PRATYAHARA, DHARANA), merge deep into the 'Supreme Soul' (DHYANA), the Light of lights, the Sun of suns, and complete knowledge will be revealed to you." Swami Sivananda pg156. Raja Yoga.

"Question authority" 60's anti war slogan.

'What going on........................?" Anon.

More on Samskara

Samskara:habits; preparation for the next action; ritual. From Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya. Translated by D.K.S. Desikachar.

Samskaras : Impressions. From The Complete Illustrated book of Yoga. Swami Vishnu Devananda.

Samskaras : Mental impressions. From Raja Yoga. Swami Sivananda.

Samskaras : Giving up bad habits. From Light on Life. B.K.S. Iyengar.

Samskara : (Activator), in the general sense of ritual, denotes any of such rites of passage as the birth ceremony, tonsure, and marriage. In Yoga, however the word has psychological significance. It stands for the indelible imprints in the subconscious left behind by our daily experiences, whether conscious or unconscious, internal or external, desirable or undesirable. The term 'samskara' suggests that these imprints are not merely passive vestiges of a persons actions and volitions but highly dynamic forces in his or her psychic life. They constantly propel consciousness into action. (There is more to this explanation but it is enough to convey the meaning of the word) From the Shambhala encyclopedia of Yoga. by Georg Feuerstein.

To be fare this last interpretation is from an encyclopedic text and therefore more informative. All the other explanations are from indexes at the the back of the books mentioned.

I'm labouring the point here with the Samskaras because I think it is important. I mentioned in a previous blog on the question of whether yoga will 'work' as a transformative process if we dont really know what the practise is all about, i.e. that is is essentially about transforming consciousness! Whatever that means .......

So imagine someone coming to their first yoga class, to learn to relax, this is the most common reason I've heard. They do a few classes and like it. "Hmmm I like this they say, I'll do more." As time goes on unless they are informed as to the possibilities of such things as 'Samskaras' or resistance as it could
be called, being unearthed they may project onto the teacher, which is what I did, that the yoga has become boring, or some other such reason. They then go to another yoga teacher perhaps and on and on it goes skimming the surface and looking for the 'perfect posture' in the mirror.

Well of course. "It all is what is". I hear some of you say. 'We will go where we are 'meant to go' for our own personal evolution. The 'higher consciousness' will lead me to the right places for my own unfolding process."
Yes indeed it will. But if we are informed it may save us some time. If you want to get to a foreign land you would be wise to use a map.

BUT . . . The map is not the territory!

Some people spend years in psychotherapy to uncover these 'wounds on the soul'. So why should we think it's going to be easy?

Yogic meandering and thoughts

Samskara: Mental impression stored in the subtle body. 'Hatha Yoga Pradipika'. 'Swami Muktibodhananda.

Samskaras : Grooves or impressions that are etched onto the covering of the soul by every karma or action taken. 'Jivamukti yoga', David Life and Sharon Gannon.

Hmmm impressions stored in the subtle body or grooves and impressions etched onto the covering of the soul.

What is a 'subtle body' ? What is the 'covering of the soul' ? Where are we to find these things. We could go and get an X-ray and see if they can be located. But we probably wont find anything that covers the soul or even the soul itself!

We aren't stupid these days are we? We have everything at our fingertips if we wish to look. Information abounds. All of these people have all these fantastic ideas and ways to be happy. But most of the time a new addiction is formed. Whether it be to attending yoga classes or having therapy or any other such thing. The problem is that the future is here and we keep letting it slip away by wanting.

It's like using 'positive affirmations'. If we need to affirm to ourselves that we are ok then surely that is coming from a place where we really think we are not ok. It would be much easier to accept that we are not ok and then start from there wouldn't it?

If we are not ok, then there must be a reason we are not ok. Oh yes I know it isn't as simple as that because of all the 'soul coverings' and 'subtle bodies' we need to find first. But surely if we are not happy we will know it if we just stay still for a while and feel it. It can be overwhelming this feeling of going down, but if we keep resisting it we get tired.

I like the analogy of a bird flying over a sea of shit and if that bird doesn't drop onto one of those lovely islands now and again and rest he will be so tired he'll drop into the shit. That is depression. So drop down now and again and feel something. Samskaras are feelings, and feelings are just that, feelings. It's what our mind does with these feelings that is the important thing. How our ego will interpet feeling is the key.

The adult holds out his closed hand and says to the child I have something in my hand that you will love. What is it the child wants to know? I'll tell you tomorrow says the adult. And it can go on like this for quite a time. Then the adult opens his hand there is nothing in it! The child may react in different ways laughing or crying in disappointment.

The empty handed gesture is prevalent in our culture of empty promises and we are still gullible enough to keep wanting. When I have the 'secret' of life I will be happy. There is no secret now, it's all laid bare in front of you, you need to clean your glasses a bit. There is the great 'google' God that will tell you anything you want to know, just type it in.

Samskara really is feeling, but this feeling is very deep indeed. You will not get there by doing a little. It really does take work to get down in to it. And what is the reward? More misery and suffering, there is no joy in this practise is there?

Well indeed there is, of course there is otherwise we wouldn't do it would we? The yoga centres would be empty and there would be nothing anywhere about the joys of yoga would there ? Think about it if you got the time!

We have all been affected by ' the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune'. Its all there inside of us. You dont need to believe in soul coverings or subtle bodies to know this. Life is a painful process for all of us, some of us are more sensitive than others I would say.

Oh yes I just remembered about how do you find a good yoga teacher. when I first set out on this so-called journey of self discovery I met a man who told me the difference between a 'healed healer' and an 'unhealed healer'.

An unhealed healer is someone that learnt about healing from a book to make money and have a career without having to do too much if any, work on themselves. A healed healer is someone that is the opposite I guess.

In case your wondering I haven't made up my mind yet!

"My name is Bill and I'm a head case" Pictures of Lily. The Who.

I have already mentioned in an earlier blog about the Fawlty towers characters, Manuel (stooped and fearful) and Basil (Shoulders back jaw thrust forward, aggressive). The effects and reactions of the conditioned mind become concretised in the body. In other words if you walk around in a state of tension/fear due to external pressures, eg, pressures at work, then your shoulders may tighten up and rise up towards your ears. If this continues for a long time one day you cant drop your shoulders, and dont even realise that you are living in a constant state of tension. Living like this over a prolonged period has detrimental effects on the natural functioning of the human organism. The bodies systems will be affected, leading sometimes to adrenal exhaustion and what is known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

At some point in life you may notice that you are not happy with your lot, and things being relative, you may be a little bit or a lot unhappy. What happens then? Well in this present climate there is a veritable supermarket full of different types of therapies on offer. Where do we start? We may hear of a friend that had some reflexology or acupuncture or herbalism or some other such thing and we go and try it. It works and we go back for more and more and more until it stops working. Hmmm then what? We try something else and then something else, on and on until we 'may' or 'may' not realise that nothing is fundamentally changing. The reason something isn't changing in my opinion is because we are putting the responsibility for our health into the hands of others. There is a place for all of these things but unless we take up the commitment to a regular practise of some kind we will always be like the boy with his finger in the dyke!

Well to be honest here I am talking also including myself in this and my own ongoing history with the search for peace, health or whatever else you want to call it! Also I know many people and continue to listen to people tell me of the latest 'transformational' type of therapy they are trying and how wonderful it all is, and it goes on and on and on..............

My experiences of 20 years of looking and working in the 'field of healing' is that all of these things work up to a point. But they still create a dependence on the external help of someone or something else. There is nothing wrong with that if you dont mind making someone rich and you can afford to stay in therapy for 20 years. As I said, I myself messed around for 10 years or so before, as I like to say, 'was washed up on the shores of yoga'. I had tried more or less everything and who knows maybe it was all a valid part of my journey.

Anyway what I am getting around to saying is that YOGA is the ultimate transformational therapy and it has been in existence according to the literature for 6000 years give or take a few years. What more could you want ? ?

Ah but then the onus comes back to I/ME/US to do the work. Not so easy then, so we find a good yoga teacher, ha! Then we are up against another problem. What is a good yoga teacher?

Ps.

These are some of the existential questions some of us may struggle with at some point in our lives : The idea of Death and the fact that we are all going to die : The concept of freedom and what that actually is and how we relate it : Isolation and the idea that we come into this world alone and we will leave it alone :Meaninglessness, and what does it all mean? What are we here for, whats the point of life?

Hari Om

So it is my belief that what we think is true is true a la John Lilly. If this is true, which I think it is, then it leads us/me into quite a tricky place and that is that I/we need to take more responsibility for what I/We think about.

In my experience radical changes only seem to occur when 'I' the individual, (Microcosm) am forced to change. I think that this is probably true in the National/Global, we, (Macrocosm) realm too.

I have read in more than one book that we, that is human beings, seem to be speeding up the evolutionary process. This seems to be based on the idea that it took 1000's of years for man to invent the wheel and since then progress has got faster and faster, up to the present day technologies, quantum physics, micro technologies etc.

The poor old human brain is being usurped by ever increasingly powerful super-computers. It's as if 'we' , that is, humans are still living in the stone age in some ways while these super technologies plough on and on.

So what am I saying ? What I'm saying is the same thing I have been saying all along that YOGA is a technology for transforming consciousness. But it wont work unless you switch it on!

When I was about 8 years old I used to read sci-fi comics. These told tales of the future where large computers existed. These super computers were the size of a small house and would always have a scientist looking figure dressed in a white coat. The scientist would feed a question into the computer and then wait a few days for the answer to be spewed out on a roll of ticker tape. Now we have Google in our homes, we can ask it anything! Such as what is Yoga, what is Kapalbhati, Anuloma Viloma, Pranayama, Kriya, etc? We dont need to go to the library any more.

✭☺☆❉

Ps. Ilya Prigogine suggested a theory called 'Dissipative Structures'. Google that! If nothing else it will give you something to think about.

"But wait a minute I thought it was supposed to be about not thinking?!" Anon.

The existentialists struggled with, amongst other things, the idea of meaninglessness. "Oh what does it all mean, what is it all about?", they asked. This seems to me to be the root of duality, at the very least, the idea of needing an 'it' to add any meaning to in itself is a flawed idea. Life surely is just being what it is meant to be, a bird is being a bird, a bee is being a bee, there is no need of any meaning. Looking for - and needing- meaning are not synonymous, there is a big difference here I think.

"I think therefore I am"- becomes - "I think therefore I am hypnotised by my own ideas of how things are or how things 'should' be!" Added to that if all of my ideas and beliefs have been passed on to me and I haven't verified any of these things then I am in fact living in an 'idea' of the way things are. Fire burns, sharp things cut, are easily verifiable, but statements such as, 'the Earth is dying '- or- 'people are stupid', or 'God has a long white beard', for example, may need some further verification.

We are essentially at the bottom line, a physiological organism that has the capacity to interpret what we see, hear and touch through our nervous systems. Therefore a dog being, just a dog could have a whole world of different effects on the different nervous systems that experience 'dogness'. The same with spiders, fire, heights, smells etc. All of the aforementioned things are only being what they are meant to be, e.g, a chair is just a chair to anyone in the world, but our personal experience of 'chair' will be very different from each other.

Meditation as a form of 'self enquiry' has the benefit of sorting ' the real from the unreal'. In other words, this is a verifying process whereby you are checking your thinking processes through your own nervous system to see if there is any substance to your thoughts, ideas, prejudices and or habits etc.

Remember the body 'will' respond to the thinking processes, this is easily verifiable, think now about something that makes you really angry and see what happens! If you are lying in your bed at night all safe and sound and are thinking about something that is producing stress or anxiety, your body will produce chemicals/hormones to verify this inner reality you are creating.

'Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it!'

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmm

So here we are and it's nearly 2010 and it seems according too many of the experts we are in big trouble, again! We have climate change, we have overpopulation, we have inequalities, fuel shortages looming. I know I for one dont really want to know about this stuff and in the past I have always felt that if each of us does our bit then it will all be alright. This a a global (as the macrocosm) event and there is nobody this omits. So I ask myself what am I doing, am I part of the problem or part of the solution? I think I am part of the solution at this point. Can I do more? Yes. But what ?

I suppose the first thing one has to do is decide if all of this stuff is true. To do that we need to look for evidence. At the moment in my little world things seem much the same as they always have. But I keep being told that things are really bad, more and more I see it in news items etc. So I am confronted with a dilemma. I need to make up my mind about this stuff. Ha!

Bearing in mind what I have been saying regarding the mind and the nature of duality and 'Maya', etc I am really in a state of confusion here because what I have been saying is: "Within the realm of the mind, what you believe to be true is true , until such truths are challenged and replaced by other truths" (Read John Lilly. Centre of the cyclone). So it stands to reason that if I/We believe the Earth is dying and that we are in big trouble then it makes it so!

I look around and I see people driving around in huge cars using lots of fuel. I see offices burning lights all night, empty offices, and I dont really see the government doing much to put pressure on these situations, Harrods for example burning God knows how many bulbs outside of their shop just for the Hell of it!

'Contempt prior to investigation is death!' So I try to find out whats going on and it ain't easy. Everyone has there own version of the truth it seems to me. Everyone believes what they want in order to stay comfortable with themselves. It's likely that we will only change when we are forced to! I know this has been the case for me. I'm not saying it's right though!

Tell me what you think. . . . . . . .

Hmmmmmmm Ommmmmmmmmmmm

The power of the breath is like the wind power generated by those huge turbines we see scattered around the countryside. If you do cardiovascular type excercise you dont have to think about breathing. The body demands it and you have to breathe. But when doing pranayama you breathe with your mind. Using concentration (Dharana) to really focus on and breathe into the abdomen and ribcage. This is a major practise. The most important practise!

Do you really know what it is like to breathe fully and deeply from the abdomen? Do you know that the brain needs and loves oxygen and that if you are only half breathing you are only half awake? Have you actually tried to breathe in and out fully through the nose or mouth for ten minutes or even half an hour?

Sleeping is nice, and it is necessary apparently to process lots of stuff that we cant deal with when we are awake as dreams. But at least when we are awake we should really try to be fully awake.

I know it's too hard ! It hurts too much ! I would rather watch the telly or have a drink it's much easier. . . . . . . . . . . .

The tension in the muscles is also stored energy. When we stretch out a muscle fibre it releases stored energy back into the system. We then use the breath to recycle this energy into the system. Can you be bothered this is the principle question ? ? ? ?

It seems to me that with or without yoga (or any other practise) that life is sometimes good and sometimes not so good, i.e, we have good and bad days. Oh yea I know it's all an illusion but sometimes it just doesn't feel that way. Like I said in a previous blog we are acted upon by all sorts of things, the weather, the moon cycles, people and relationships, pressures of a financial nature and so on. It would be rather stupid to say the least that these things are an illusion and try to ignore them. So what are we to do?

Meditation is one way of seeing that the thought processes are not really real. Thought processes are subjective at best, of an outer condition, and complete rubbish at other times. Our brain is trying to make sense of the swirl of atomic particles going on all around us all the time. The human bean has a nice little blue print now for what he has made real and what he has made not real. For example it wasn't too long ago in the deep mists of time that we thought the Earth was flat and that it would be impossible to fly.

I for one, am very happy that we appear to live in an infinite Universe, more or less, and that we only seem to know what a small part of the brain actually does. So how man/woman can consider them selves at the pinnacle of evolution is beyond me. We are still moving into an unknown of infinite potential as far as I can tell.

It is scary to be confronted with the idea of a larger perspective, something beyond ego and dismiss it as the ramblings of a mad fool, which of course it just may be. We generally only go beyond the constraints of our belief systems when we are forced to, e.g, at times of serious illness or the death of loved one and other such intense crises. Then what do we do? We may ask what is it all about this thing called life?

"There's a crack in everything, thats how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen.

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

YOGA - or let me be more specific, Asana, Pranayama, and some Dharana, because that is what is taught in most so called yoga classes I've been to, is a transformative process. I know it is transformative because I have experienced that process in my self and I have seen it in many of my more tenacious students.

Asana (postures). Pranayama (breathing and more). Pratyahara (the turning in of the senses), Dharana (concentration) leading to Dhyana (meditation). Then just around the corner is Samhadhi (WOW!)

It's not a criticism, although it maybe, that there is not much room for meditation in most if not all of the yoga classes I have attended and taught. So that must be something we are encouraged to do at home.

Preceding all of these activities comes the Yamas (restraints) and Niyamas (observances) which are all nicely described in the 'Yoga Sutra's of Patanjali' (see previous blog/s). Which according to some should be completed and mastered before the first asana is attempted. Imagine how many people would be doing what is called yoga now if this were the case?! I myself would never have started, and if you are a fundamentalist then you may say rightly so! Whatever.

Getting back to my point of yoga being transformative, it definitely is! But one of the questions I have asked myself is, is it still as effective in being transformative if we are ignorant of the philosophy or the bigger picture of yoga. I would say definitely (again) yes!

But, and this is quite a large but, I also feel that if we take the time to look at some of the really great books* that are available on the subject then we can see ourselves more clearly moving through the various emotional and mental blocks that can be quite a challenge at the best of times. It's as if the philosophy is a map and a map is useful as long as we remember the map is not the territory, i.e we are all very similar but also very unique in our personal unfolding process.

What I mean by that is that we all generally move in our own unique way, and if we have someone pushing us into stuff we are not ready for then the process becomes counter productive to an extent. Only to an extent because the physiology is largely self regulating and will return to what is it's 'normal' condition with rest.

"The Path goes ever on". Bilbo Baggins. (The Hobbit)

*Any book by B.K.S. Iyengar and as far as I know he's only written three are well worth the money. Although he is a bit authoritarian to say the least his information is spot on.

The 'Bihar' books are all very good and easy to read too.

'Wapabaloobamwopbamboo'. Little Richard.

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Every inhale is a birth into the next moment, every exhale is the death of that moment. Does this mean that Khumbhaka (retention of breath) is a retaining of this precious moment in silence.

Brahma ,(Birth). Shiva (Destruction). Vishnu (preservation)

Hari Om Tat Sat.

Robert Anton Wilson is quite an interesting guy. Give him a google.

Ilya Prigogine was an interesting guy too !

So was Tommy Cooper (the comedian) in his own way. Who had the right way to live? Is there a right way to live?

According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali there is a right way to live if you are a yogic seeker. It's all laid bare in this book. The book has been interpreted by many different people. Swami Satchitananda's version is my particular favourite.

If you have at least half of your brain functioning you really should buy 'Holy Madness' By Georg Feuerstein. Hohm Press.