Yogi Yoga and more yogic yoga . . . . . .

People exercise so that they can feel better, some people do exercise because they want to be better and they compete to beat each other and themselves. It is this idea of getting better through competing that is part of the problem for the ego. I want to be better than I am is great but how can you be better than you are if you don't really know yourself?

We all function with a certain amount of energy. If we compare ourselves to a lightbulb we may find we are functioning at a particular level of energy, say 20, 30 or 50 watt of power . If we try to put 50 watts of power into a 30 watt bulb it will blow up and if you try to run 30 miles when you are very unfit you will likely kill yourself!

The first step may be to appreciate where you are functioning from an energetic perspective and use that as a platform for moving into higher functioning energy levels. Note the difference between 'getting fitter' and 'increasing energy' and I'm not talking semantics here.

With exercise we tend to use allot of energy to get fit, in other words to increase energy we burn energy, and sometimes this is counter-productive, Running, swimming and other aerobic type of exercises make us fitter, so we feel and look better. This is all very well and there is nothing wrong with wanting to look and feel better. But the downside to this is it kind of wears out the body in the process, (personal opinion here).

Here I am not making a right or wrong scenario I am just trying to point something out!

Yoga is different from exercise in the conventional sense in that it uses energy to transform something on the inside. It is not too bothered about what things look like, although by the behaviour of some yoga teachers today you'd think this was the case! It is more interested in what things feel like. But even that is not enough to convey the difference is it?

And here we arrive a a tricky place, this a yoga website by the way...... It is quite hard to scientifically prove some of the ideas put forward by the yogi's of the past. Such idea and precepts as 'kundalini' are laughed at by most of conventional science. Yet we can read stories by very sensible and rational people about the effects of kundalini on the human body if we take the time to look. Is it real? What is it?

'Contempt prior to investigation is the defence of the cynic'. Anon.

I couldn't care less if 100 scientists told me kundalini didn't exist when my whole life is improving (which it is) as a result of practising these exercises. Why should I care what they think or say?

'What one believes to be true in the mind is true until such truths are proved right or wrong and replaced with other newer truths'.

I'm not an intellectual so would probably (maybe), lose any arguments with highly educated, sceptics on this subject, not because they were right and I was wrong but because I find arguing about something a total waste of time, and more importantly 'energy'.

Energy is the word. Energy is the thing that can be increased through yogic asana, pranayama and meditation. This energy is available to all of us at any time to do with as we will. So if you want to run in a marathon to prove something to yourself and others that is what you must do.

If however you really want to get to the point you will turn that energy and your attention within and find out who you are and how to operate your own nervous system in order to move beyond limits imposed by your own conditioned reality!

Note: I want to make clear the difference between the concept of kundalini as an entity that exists within the human body and the 'kundalini method of yoga' that is presented by Yogi Bhajan. I am not a student of Yogi Bhajan.

More later.

Om

the moon made me do it !!

It is amazing how difficult it is to bring the mind under control.

It takes an intention, it takes a decision to sit up straight and get on with the job.

Otherwise it just keeps coming at you relentlessly.

The mind seems to be a complex apparatus filled with memories, ideas, worries and concerns etc.

Once we have made a commitment to take it on then we are faced with the challenge of finding out who we really are.

Living in mundane reality which most of us do most of the time, we are inundated with information on all levels. The brain is a super computer capable of handling large amounts of information. How much of it do we need?

We 'need' to eat, drink, sleep and go to the toilet. We need warmth, shelter and the company of others, some of us more than others. Everything else is to do with what we want, or more precisely, what we think we want, or even what we have been told we want.

"He who dies with the most toys wins" Yuppie statement form the Thatcher years.

I personally have always found living a rather tricky thing. By living I mean living in a contented and peaceful way, and not struggling to survive on the wage/slave treadmill.

So I ask myself from time to time, 'what do I really need?'

The answer for me was a 'spiritual' one. I have never been content with material possessions for long. The new car soon becomes the old car. But this is what our economy is based on. We are told to buy more to make the economy strong. On the other hand we are being told that the world is in trouble by too much exploitation of people and natural resources. What do we do? Here we are receiving mixed messages. Who is it that is giving us this information? Is any of it true?

This is the world we live in now. This is the step we have reached in our evolutionary process. We have never been here before with so much and yet so little.

If we keep buying the toys aren't we in denial of the other truth. And if we stop buying the toys aren't we buying into the fear hype?

It all seems rather schizophrenic to me.

It becomes a personal choice in the end doesn't it. It is a personal choice that makes us who we are. We decide who we are and who we want to be. These decisions are informed by ???

If we continue to live in a state of unresolved conflict we will get very tired. So we have to decide which side of the fence we are on, not just in the case of toys or no toys, but in all cases about absolutely everything.

"I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure"

For me the process of Yoga - Asana- Pranayama and meditation works completely on all levels of consciousness. It is a transformative process at the very least. It will disturb you when you are comfortable and it will comfort you when you are disturbed. The ongoing process of yoga will turn you inside out.

You may not be ready to be turned inside out yet, so you do pilates or body pump. This will keep you relaxed enough to allow you to function enough to buy more toys until you get bored and have to go a bit deeper.

The time may come for some of us when we are forced to face the music of our own undoing. Then it will be time to do 'proper yoga'.

Essentially if you can 'still' the mind then you are stopping thought at the creative level. Thought is behind action. Before any action there has to be a thought to decide to act, whatever that act may be.

If we can keep looking into the thought creating process we will be looking into the very nature of our own ability to create or mis-create our own reality.

Otherwise we are a victim of our conditioned thought creating process, old software.

Just the facts . . . .

If you are a yogi, you will get up in the morning and do yoga. If you are not a yogi you will do something else.

If you are a yogi, it is highly unlikely that you will drink alcohol to the point where you need to get drunk.

If you are a yogi it is highly unlikely that you will take drugs, either legal or not legal.

If you are a yogi you will be one.

Asanas practise is merely a preamble to meditation. Keep your ego in check and sit still for an hour.

The books of the Bihar school are very good books on the topic of yoga, especially 'Hatha Yoga Pradipika' and 'Kundalini Tantra'. If you don't bother to buy these books you may need to ask yourself. 'What am I doing?'

If you want to moan and complain and do nothing about it you are not a yogi!

If you still think it's someone else's fault, you are NOT a yogi.

Well it's harsh words from me today, but I'm only saying this because I'm a bit fed up with what I see as a poor substitute for the real thing. . . . . .

Having said all of that I wonder do we actually have any control over our destiny?

You are what you are until you decide otherwise, this I suppose is known as 'free will'. The power of choice to decide who you want to be.

BUT! When you strip it all away in the burning of your ego in yoga/meditation there is nothing to be. So what do you do then?

Try laughing !

security blanket . . . .

Even if you don't believe in chakra's or kundalini or anything at all you have to surely see that the mind is yours to do with as you please, or not.

If you can see this you must also realise that he world is 'as we see it', it is more or less a subjective experience based on how we are seeing and feeling it at any given time.

If you can see this too, then maybe you can, if you try, bring your mind to a still point where there are no thoughts.

If you can do this then surely you may need to ask 'who are you'?

Are you the 'thinker' or the person being 'thought' ?

Hardware - Software.

Subject - Object.

In one of Satre's, or any of the existentialists worst nightmares there is nothing in and of itself, nothing, nothing, nothing all the way down to more nothing.

Once you see this what is there left to do apart from run to the security blanket of your own choosing?

A warm bath, a gin and tonic, a large dinner, a spliffy or two aaaaaaaaaaah peace and joy. :))

All of these are pleasures depending on where you are at in your personal evolution - BUT!

Once you have made peace with yourselves at the bottom of the 'well of thoughts' during meditation you no longer have a need for these things - peace lies within - doesn't it ?

Om Om Om

More peace . . . ? Yes please !

Positive thinking is just another way of saying - re-programme your mind.

We take out the old negative stuff and we replace it with some new positive stuff, just like a software upgrade really.

Not as easy as it sounds though is it? For those of you that have tried the positive affirmation route you know full well that after years of thinking the way we do to suddenly think that we can change it all by making a few positive affirmations, well really .......

What you really need to do to insert these affirmations more deeply is to get out of your normal range of consciousness, into what could be regarded as a 'higher' state of consciousness. Once there you can literally 'see' yourselves with a clearer view. From here also you may realise how unhappy you are, or how too busy you are, or trapped or . . . . . .

This is not nice, it is not a nice feeling to see that we are not as happy as we thought we were. Yes I know it is all relative, but relative to what? You can rationalise all you like that you are better off than some people you know, but really you feel the feelings associated with who you 'think' you are right now. How does that feel?

So what you are doing here is stirring up the hornets nest of the 'ego'. But you are doing this for a reason. You are literally getting to the bottom of things, and this isn't always a pleasant experience, in my opinion.

But then you come back to the breath rhythm, back to the calmness and stillness that you are now starting to create through your own will, with the yogic practise of Asana - Pranayama - Meditation. You are now learning to operate your own nervous system.

om om om

Yoga!!!

As we do our yoga for longer periods we may start to see more clearly the way 'we' function as people. We may begin to see that we have needs and wants, and that in some ways we are unfulfilled. This sense of dissatisfaction is felt for some of us as a literal pain. People who know no better will invest allot of time and effort escaping from this feeling. This is where the accepted social addictions to booze, caffeine, and cigarettes may play a role. We want to get high so we may smoke a bit if weed etc, and some but not all of us may go on to so-called harder drugs into addiction/s.

But if we invested at least half of the energy we may have invested in the past into escapism into facing the 'cause' of these feelings of pain and discomfort, we may be well surprised!

MAYA = ILLUSION

We are all to some extent trapped in our own reality, we are 'island universes', each operating through our own personal programmes. I use the word programmes as it seem to me to make more sense from the perspective 'in modern parlance' to our expanding familiar use of computer systems/softwares.

The brain and nervous system are the hardware and all our conditioned thinking , habits etc, are our software.

When we do asana practise we are releasing chronic tensions from our muscles, joints and organs. As we relax more the blood and lymphatic fluid move more freely through the body carrying nutrients to the organs and waste away from them. This makes us feel better, we may begin to detox.

When we do pranayama, apart from the 'esoteric' effects of this energy on the systems, we are also using our mind and breath in harmony to create an integrated feeling inside of ourselves, i.e, the mind and the breath become united and rhythmically synchronised. This leads to a deeper sense of relaxation and peace.

As time goes by and as we release more of the chronic tensions from within the 'deeper' conditioned muscles, we find that we can stay still for longer periods of time.

Once we become willing to sit still for the purpose of concentration/meditation we are ready to step into a new realm of consciousness, new from the point of view that most of us have never sat still for very long at all, ever.

We sit still, this is important, and we wait literally for the next breath. If you have never done this before you may find it completely difficult. Th biggest distraction, we start to realise is our own chattering, constantly chattering, mind/ego/personality.

Aha! Now we are getting to the nub of it all. No truer was the term, 'it's all in the mind', when it comes to the practise of sitting still.

'Sweet dream are made of this' Eurythmics.

Om Om Om

Yoga!!!

Just by living life everyday to the best of our ability will affect the way most of us behave. We will probably adapt (if we are slightly intelligent) to live a life that is optimally healthy for us as we grow older.

It is said that as we grow older we grow wiser. This implies that life itself somehow teaches us lessons that we adapt to or rebel against, that we are somehow genetically hard wired to evolve, and that ultimately we will find whats best for us in terms of life choices in the end.

While this may be true for some, it is clearly not true for all of us. We find people getting sick and dying from different causes for no apparent reason. We find all sorts of injustices when it comes to health issues. Some people may smoke and drink to their hearts content and live well into old age. Others who appear to live a well balanced life get sick.

Nevertheless it has to be said that you have more of a chance of a longer and 'healthier' life if you live in a 'healthy' way than not, but as usual there are always exceptions to the rule.

So thats one thing. The other of course is if you pick up the mantle of some kind of conscious change techniques, such as yoga etc.

When you do this you are saying something to yourself along the lines of 'I can do something to make my life better, and I don't really want to wait for fate to decree what happens to me'. Something like that, wouldn't you say?

So then we look at the evidence for this particular way (yoga) in terms of health benefits. It is said to lower blood pressure by helping us to relax, improves sleeping patterns, helps us to relax even more, makes us more intelligent by improving oxygen supply to the brain and therefore helps us to form a 'better' way of life, etc. Helps us to keep joint mobility and muscle tone, aiding proper postural alignment and therefore again enabling us to see from a better perspective which is our optimal life choices.

'Structure governs function' A.T Still (founder of osteopathy).

So this is all good, we feel better even though we do find that the 'doing' of the practise is sometimes very challenging. It can be (for some of us) a bit like a visit to the dentist. We know it will be good for us but we don't particularly enjoy it. Maybe the tendency towards a bit of masochism is useful after all in this case.

This is all good so far. But then we read some of the more informed yoga books. We may come across the 'yoga sutra's' or the 'hatha yoga pradipika', in fact I think we must come across these books eventually. It is then that we start to see that there is much more to this than we first thought. Hmmmm. We read words we don't understand. We start to come to terms with the fact that yoga wasn't something that was invented in the 60's, but has a long history stretching back at least 2000 years and more.

Then it get more interesting!

Om om om

misery is one option . . . .

To cut a long story short Yoga in and of itself is a purification on all levels. The more you do, the faster this process takes place. Depending on your Karmic predisposition, (if you believe such a thing), or your tenacity and ability to suffer, this process of purification will occur. By ability to suffer I'm talking you ability to withstand withdrawal symptoms from your chosen behaviour of choice as you start to transform.

The results of your effort will be rewarded with, amongst other things, a strong resistance to change, from mostly the ego structure, i,e, the conditioning, defensive habit patterns and addictions etc, of who you are, or who you think you are right now.

Do you agree with this so far? Yes/No/Maybe.

If the answer is maybe then 'maybe' you should read it again and think.

What is it that lies behind the 'who we think we are' phenomena?

When you are sitting or lying down with a silent mind, do you still exist as an 'ego' entity whilst this condition exists?

When you finish being quiet and silent and you pick up the thinking process again, who or what is it that is choosing to do this?

You could from this perspective experience the mind or consciousness as having different levels or depths to it.

In John Lilly's book 'Centre of the Cyclone'. He has mapped out in some way the levels of our consciousness experiences in a very scientific way and I would highly recommend this book to all of you that have the vaguest interest in consciousness development.

In a way the mind is like a microcosm of the universe. It is vast and expansive and unless you have the latest maps you may come a cropper out/in there.

Disappointment is the beginning of the inner journey. When you are no longer willing to be satisfied with what or who you are you may find it disturbing. But this is the gift of awakening, this is the key to a deeper questioning of who or what you think you are.

Yoga has the potential to change everything. don't believe the dogma, try it our for yourself. If you do 1 hour of alternate nostril breathing what happens to you?

'Contempt prior to investigation is the sceptics best defence' Hal Asana.

Om Om Om

God! No God! Who knows who cares? . .

Sooner or later, if you have some sense of yourself as a human living in this world you may ask yourself some questions. One of the favourite questions of humans at various points along the way is. "What the f--- is going on around here?" Another fave is. "Why am I doing this?"

Add you own favourite here if you wish. . . . . . . .

After a brief period of suffering usually in the form of anxiety, everything, (usually or sometimes) returns to what we would generally regard as 'normal' and we forget about our meaningful questioning and get on with life as we understand it, or mundane reality, or conditioned reality, or use your favourite term.

For some of us these questions can become a turning point in our lives. We may begin to feel the existential angst is here to stay and we then, (maybe) start to read some books on philosophy or even existentialism etc to find some answers to our dilemma. This is all good and we do find some of the keys that are available in some of the books useful in helping us to make sense of things.

We then, some of us or most of us, come to terms with the fact that life is just doing what it does and it really doesn't matter what it is we do, as long as we are happy, lovely for you.

But for some more of us even this is not satisfying, we want to know more. So we keep looking and while others seem to be quite happily getting on with life we keep wondering.

"There must be more to it than this surely?" Is another favourite question for some of us.

We find that when we are peaceful we see things in a different way from times when we are not peaceful. Life seems a whole lot better when the sun shines than not. We have to find a way to cope so we learn how to manage our behaviour, we keep a lid on things as we 'live a life of quiet despair' self medicating our way out of anything too serious or intense with our fave drug or behaviour of choice.

One day we find a yoga class, or not, and we feel better after it, so we keep going, we keep feeling better, we keep going. As we keep going and keep feeling better life seems to be a bit easier to 'cope with'. We feel pleased with ourselves. We do more yoga and find after several years this feeling of dissatisfaction creeping back in. "Oh no!!"

'The wonderful will become mundane sooner or later unless you move beyond the limits of yourself.' Moola Bhanda.

"Well". We think. "In for a penny in for a pound, its (yoga) brought me this far I may as well keep going". We read about all of the things yoga can do for us we try it and see but we are a bit nervous about the results. 'Maybe it can work after all!"

But then again falling in love or going travelling or changing our job or our home location etc are all good ways to avoid going deeper into ourselves. But if you need to do it, do it with a clear conscience.

Too be honest with or without yoga, if we live long enough, sooner or later, if we are lucky we may start to loose interest in worrying about everything, we may then pay more attention to keeping in the moment. We may start avoid negative people, places and things and start to feel better. We may develop our own practise (or not) to suit us and not our egotistical yoga teacher :) OM, and we feel better.

Maybe - Maybe not - If not why not?

WHY ? _____ WHY NOT?

Om Om Om

Enough of this . . . .

So there you go, if by now you don't know you have an ego, you should go and do something else. If you have realised that you have an ego then it is time to take a look at it !!

'A sick mind cannot heal a sick mind' Anon

From a rather extremist point of view all mind is in some way compromised , it is compromised because it has been conditioned to a rather large extent by what has happened to you so far along the way.

Just to say 'I don't have an ego' is one thing as a joke, but to actually mean it implies, in my view, that you are mentally disturbed.

However I digress. If you know what it is like to be drunk or under the influence of some drug or another, whether a legal painkiller or something else, you know that alternate states of consciousness prevail at some other level of awareness, levels that may needs chemical keys to access them.

We tend to call the state of consciousness we exist in most of the time 'reality'. We do this because we have got used to living in that realm and it is what feels normal and safe for us.

Certain drug like cannabis and even alcohol were originally intended for ritual use. These chemicals were given to certain people under certain conditions for specific purposes. As we know now these things plus many more are taken ad hoc to relieve the so-called stresses of so-called modern life.

To the chronic cannabis and alcohol user normal life is not too good most of the time, so the use of chemical means of escape are rationalised as necessary for the ongoing survival of said user. I'm digressing again sorry.

Let me put it this way. If you have been clean from substance abuse for a period of time, and have been doing something like yoga for some time, you may know how tediously boring it is to be around someone who drinks or smokes allot etc. But to them you are the one who's boring and tedious, strange huh?!

What do you think happens to you if you sit and do alternate nostril breathing for an hour or more?

Om

If at first you don't succeed . . . . . .

Well, things are the way they are, with or without yoga there are difficulties to overcome or to be overcome by.

Life is being what it's meant to be, we somehow are caught up in it's dynamic. We have become what we have become through a long process of conditioning, some of it conscious some of it not.

The questions remain the same, who am I and what am I doing?

Existential angst is a given for some of us, it is always there somewhere hovering in the background. We can never be totally certain of whether there is life after death, or how long we have to go in this life. We can convince ourselves of many things but lurking in the background is the doubt, there is always that part of us that doubts.

Lovely, we all have it so that makes it ok doesn't it? We can meditate till the cows come home, but we still have to face the music as it is at some point.

What use is meditation? What use are feelings? What's the point?

Hmmmmm indeed, if we start to go down that road we find ourselves left with the ever querying mind of the existentialists. Three or four pages of Sartre will make you think, if that is what you want to do. In the fifties Sartre was cutting edge stuff, but we have come a very long way indeed since then. Sartre smoked a pipe most of the time. Freud smoked cigars and was quite partial to a bit of Bolivian marching powder. Jung was a bit of a lad with the women. If you read into the lives of these great thinkers, and I might add influential thinkers, they were all flawed in some way, thank God for that!

'It is easier to be a saint than it is to live with one' Fred Mac- Murphy the third.

If you have the time to sit down and breathe in and out through the nose calmly before you go out, why don't you do it? If you have time to do a few postures before you make your way out there into the world,why don't you do them?

Today is the first day of the rest of your life :)

Om Om Om

More on the truth . . . . . . .

Action and reaction. We live constantly within this dynamic. We could theoretically live out our whole lives in reaction to something that happened to us in our childhood. Some people have years of psychotherapy in order to uncover some of these old programmes, programmes that are still running their lives today.

'For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction'. According to this law, everything we do will have consequences. Do we think this is true?

I have found that the more I 'evolve' or wake up or grow up, the more I see, both good and bad about myself and others. The more I see the more the 'onus' is on me to deal with it.

At a certain point in every one's life there may come a time when we can consider ourselves to be 'grown up'. The idea of being a grown up now seems to have less clear distinctions than it did, say 50 years ago.

But if we move away from this loaded idea of 'being a grown up' for a moment and look at ourselves without judgement, what do we see? The main question then may be, not are we grown up, but are we happy with ourselves in this life, the way things are right now? If we are great! If we are not then what? This is where the 'onus' once more falls upon 'us' to sort it out, whatever it is.

A 'non-grown-up' in this instance would seek advice or help from a grown up. This means that the 'child' has not encountered a situation like this before and needs the help of someone else, a grown up, to help them. This of course presupposes that the 'grown up' has been though the experience the child is now going through and can help this 'needy' child though it's process.

When we start to practise yoga we find what? We feel better afterwards? We start to get fit? We feel more relaxed? All of this may be true, but the main thing is we really start to 'feel' ourselves from within. We begin to form a relationship with ourselves from the inside.

As we have lived most of our life pre-yoga living in our heads it may be quite a shock to the system to find we have 'feelings'.

"when i was a child I spoke like a child etc ..... and then I put away childish thing...... " Etc

Childish things are 'feelings' and as we 'grow up' we learn to 'think' and override our feelings. We don't need them anymore do we? What are they good for?

Well who knows what they are good for exactly, but one we thing we do know is that under pressure these 'feelings' have a tendency to rise to the surface and overwhelm us.

But once we start to get into the physical practise of Hatha yoga we find that these feelings are still there.

What do we do with them?

" And you may ask yourself 'My GOD!, what have I done'??" Once in a lifetime. Talking Heads.

Om Om Om